The long term reality of aviation is a string of great years followed by a string of bad years.
For anyone who has not experienced a string of bad years, this downturn has probably come as something of a shock.
Anyone who started in aviation within the last 5 years (perhaps a little longer) had a much easier time finding work than pervious generations, and they enjoyed a lightening fast career progression compared to their predecessors. That is terrific, however I think it has left some vulnerable to the perception that their skills were going to be in demand all around the world throughout their career, and they imagined employers would be begging them to come to work until their dyeing day.
And so now it comes as a bit of shock for them to suddenly discover this industry can spit you out pretty fast, and we’re not the golden boys and girls that we may have imagined ourselves to be.
There is a lot of luck and timing in an aviation career and that is beyond our control.
What I wrote before referring to the good times, still applies now to the bad times, “We don’t create the supply-and-demand employment metric, we can only position ourselves to gain from the climate at the time.”
I won’t be surprised if we soon see people paying for type-rating, and basally working for nothing to get hours. These are the folk you’ll soon be competing against for work, and as much as they will be ridiculed by their peers, depending on your level of experience, you may have to join them or take a job outside aviation for a while.
Aviation will boom again in years to come, and then go bust again. Make hay while the sun shines, but don’t get yourself into a financial position of being dependent on a stable salary at any time during your career. Good luck!