George,
Before I start I'll tell you a bit about me:
- 16 left school 6 months into my A Levels (didn't want to be there)
- 17 got a job with easyJet at Luton checking in passengers
- 18 got a job with easyJet as Cabin Crew and started my PPL
- 19 got the job with a big scheduled and charter airline as an Operations Officer - finished the PPL
- 20 left the airline for college where I started my A Levels again! (actually wanting to study this time - hopefully allowing me to get decent grades!)
I've chopped and changed but all for good reasons - to build experience!
For many people impatience plays a bit part. Personally I think it's best to gain a degree from the University of life before pursuing a career with so much stress and responsibility! I am mature for my age yet I know there are so many things out there that I'm yet to experience!
There are lots of things I want to do before I start training that I wont be able to do when employed! Yes, FTO's like to you start your training asap and say "the quicker you start training, the quicker you're earning money and the quicker you become a captain" but hey, you don't miss what you don't have!
By the age of 20 I had experience working for a handling agent, I was cabin crew for a year and a half and I worked in a busy operations department! Hopefully building a good foundation to a career as a pilot. Although they're not essential it's experience the guys and girls who went straight into training haven't got. I left working in the industry a month ago, and I'm now at college doing the A Levels I didn't do when I was 16/17/18. I want the A Levels to give me other options and something to fall back on.
It's a very unstable world we live in and you never know what's around the corner! Look at what happened to the OAT grads who walked into XL only to be walking back out again a few months later now at the bottom of the pile when it comes to experience!
Life is about what choices you made and how you deal with the bad hands fate gives you! Just try to put yourself in the best position you can, just in case...
Leaving the well paid airline ops room, playing with planes and passengers, wearing the pilots uniform and staff travel was a hard decision but I'm glad I did it, I'm loving college and have met some great people. Don't be in a rush to do anything - when you rush you make mistakes. Some people make £75,000 worth of mistakes.
S88
