Originally Posted by
PilotRichard
Hi All,
Apologies for the long winded comment.
For context I’m a young(ish) FO, made redundant by a certain poorly run uk regional airline. I’ve a start date as an SO with VAA later this year, and have assessments with Tui and potentially others.
I’m instructing for the time being to see me through till VAA, and by no means do I want to come across as ungrateful of my situation, I’m extremely chuffed I’ve got a job to go to.
That being said, I find my self indecisive about where I want to end up, for what I hope is a career job. I never saw myself going LH this soon, as I view it as unfulfilling in comparison to SH and would like to be home more often than not. That being said my biggest worry and possibly my main gripe is job security (term used lightly given the sh1thousery of this industry), probably a paranoia grown from a double whammy of redundancies. I’m not asking for anything directly, just if anyone had any honest guidance/advice or insight into these companies and/or this point in my career. Thanks lads/Ladettes
I hope I can offer some ruminations. I can’t be prescriptive. Some of the concerns you mention remind me of me, when I was in your shoes but with another large UK airline with LH
A thing that gets glossed over when taking jobs in this game is being honest with who you are as a person and how the place and the way it goes about things would fit you.
Listen to your gut instincts. That isn’t hocus pocus. Ask me how I know. I ignored mine. I just had a baaaad vibe about the direction I was taking. Like bad juju about the place even driving through the gates to join (not VS I’ve never worked there). But I ignored it using stupid piloty good for nothing in the real world logic
VS has a track record in the nasty behaviour redundancy stakes as do both the legacy carriers . And hotels and Legacy carriers go together.
If you think being away in hotels is not going to be you then full time LH is going to lean right into that particular corner of your brain long term and amp it to “are you crazy”. It never goes away. There’s no escape from that disconnected on the road feeling and half packed suitcases and majority missed weekends. Modern Full time LH isn’t the job many think it is. My outfit it’s trip 2 off, 5/6 trips a month. It wears thin after about 5 minutes. I personally think choose an airline that has part time options available from the beginning.
You could join VAA, and if you hate it, apply elsewhere but it’s not like switching jobs is easy int his bloody job. It’s months of stress and test and your personal life tipped upside down yet again for months. What a pain in the arris, especially as you’ve been through enough. You could stick out instructing and wait for Tui assessment. How would that feel? If Tui offered you a job now and you had a choice between that and VS how would that feel? I’m just playing with it but don’t be afraid of your own doubts. Stare right at them