Hi Boulanger, may you be so kind to share more specifically about your experience on how bad the SO job is?
From what I saw online, the SO job seems to be quite boring, just sitting in the back and monitoring things most of the time. It seems to be boring but easy. Such workload or nature compared to the pay, I thought it was quite good tho? I could be wrong, please correct me if you see anything wrong below as its just my understanding from the information available online and I know it definitely not the full picture.
During the 3 years that a part of salary has to compensate for the training fee, the SO is getting at least 30K (HKD), and then close to 50K (HKD) after that 3 years, while just sitting in the back mainly and studying by self most of the time. If lucky enough, in 6-10 years time, the salary will rise to 80K (HKD) per month when moved up to FO, not to mention the captain's range.
I know if for a person who loves to fly an airplane, it must be tough to not having control for 6-7 years. But as an average person with non-aviation background, I think the path and remuneration is actually quite good for SO. I was a manager dealing a lot of pressure situations day to day, and the pay was also just 50k (HKD) a month, with no much room to climb up. So, from the angle of an outsider, it feels like quite good to start as a SO. Could you please share more how bad the SO job actually is, so I can really have a second thought before making a turn?
Thank you!