Originally Posted by
Baldeep Inminj
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However, my friends who got into the the airlines at an early age are now pretty much all a lot wealthier than me...but I have much better stories! It’s horses for courses.
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That falls very much into the "do you work to live or do you live to work" situation! Who is happier?
I liked
Lord Farringdon's very well written optimism. But then there are some quite justified 'glass half full' comments following that. For example, will a future employer think that you're only going to be there until another flying job comes up?
Don't knock the idea of any of those 'menial' jobs in the mean time. Go and do one if you can. And don't think of it as 'menial' think of it as different. It will keep you occupied rather than moping at home. It will make your C.V. look better for whatever comes up in the future from two aspects: no long empty gaps and it showed that you were prepared to do something. That 'something' will help you to readjust your thinking to what may lie ahead and get you into a more suitable frame of mind. It would definitely help with your 'references trail' for whatever the future holds (possibly another airline job that will need that 'trail'?). But it will keep you busy. If you go down the sort of route that Lord Farringdon has done I am sure that it will put that "Is prepared to try something different" thought into a prospective employer's mind when looking at applicants to interview. And you will probably find if you go into it with the right frame of mind that you will enjoy it! Don't see it as 'underselling yourself', see it as filling a gap while you prepare for whatever comes next. And even if you do end up back in a flying job, it'll give you more to talk about in future years!!
I myself have had a gap between jobs and went to do what many might consider a 'menial' job, effectively sorting bits of paper and feeding them into envelopes. I met a huge range of people doing it for all sorts of reasons: fill gaps as I was (a lot of them from all walks of life!), people who just went from one temporary job to another, students earning extra cash or pensioners earning a bit more for that extra holiday the next year (in one case, one in his 70s for his annual scuba-diving holiday!). They were a great bunch of people. I never said what I did. Most never asked. If they did I said I was involved in 'transport' (until my last day, when I told a few!). I enjoyed it so much that a couple of years later I went and did it again for a few days in my spare time (again not talking abut what I do) and found that the new starters had been told that they have a huge range of people working there, they even had an airline pilot once! I would thoroughly recommend that anyone with time on their hands look into doing something! It would be valuable not just for whatever your C.V. might be needed for, but also for your own mind. It should add that little bit more to the way that you see the world which could be hugely valuable if it is not a flying job that you will go into.
But don't be too pessimistic about those flying jobs either. There have been huge ups and downs in this industry and it always bounces back, somehow. I have worked with lot of people who have been thrown aside by this industry but have clambered back. (And I have usually enjoyed flying with them a whole lot more than those who have ended up with everything 'handed' to them on a plate.) If you're really in it for the flying, don't give up. (If not, then please leave it for those who do enjoy the flying!)
But don't sit at home and mope, go and do something 'different' in the mean time. If you are going to do as Lord Farringdon suggested, it could be that first tiny step that gets the mind thinking differently. If you are intending to get back into flying it could be an important step to keeping your mind going!
Whichever way you go -- Good Luck!!