Originally Posted by
Flyingdog84
Hello folks, 39 here from Europe. Just want to share my experience with you all, maybe will help somebody.
I completed all my beloved training, after lot of study, happiness, madness, anxiety... I can be proud of myself. I did not accomplished something of extraordinary but with family, job ecc ecc was not easy, also economically.
Now I am facing the other side, much more disappointing, trying to find a decent job, a job that pay for my job, not the opposite.
Only one company answered me besides lot of CV sent everywhere in Europe.
For a job, need to pay lot of money for the type, live without salary for few months during the training, after that the salary is peanuts for almost one year. In this mean time the old new pilot need to survive, pay a new rent somewhere, still provide for the family, ecc....
I am a civil engineer with a good salary with the dream and the love for aviation but facing a real budget plan, be pilot will just make me go through hard time and will take more than 10 year for get back this new investment without considering all the licence cost.
I did a budget plan considering all the cost, the missed gains, housing, living and all the predictable factors, also with the option to become captain after the 5th year. Make no sense for me "tight the belt" and also my family do not deserve to face difficult time because I have a dream.
I believe Europe do not really need pilots for now, maybe in the future, I will try to be ready for that moment. I think in US the situation is different.
cheers!!
First of all you are not to old, I was in similar situation as you, it took me over 12 months to get my first job, and a few yours ago I got my LHS in a major European company. So it is possible, it's not easy to have to wait, but there are opportunities out there.
The obvious ones are Ryanair and Wizz, they are good companies to gain your initial experience and have European bases. The 5 year Captain plan is putting pressure on yourself as you should not do yet, worry initially about gaining experience and that will come when it comes. Things happen, such as we just saw 2 years of Covid delay and stop everything, but now there is a great demand for pilots, but you can't be picky.
But do to Pay2Fly, I have seen and heard many stories, and most of them do not always end well. Sure you might need to cover your TR, but make sure you have a contract with a company before you commit to this.
The question I have, is what are you expectations for a decent job? The companies I mention are hard work, and neither are for me long term solutions, but it gives you a start. Me and many I knew, were commuting few hours by air, staying away from our homes / families for 5 - 10 days at a time, some even more, and only got relative short time home with our loved ones, and pay was not great either for the first 4 - 5 years.
Many times "older guys" need slightly longer time for Command, again this is a very individual thing, and we are not all the same.