To answer the points
Deskpilot, do you accept that a recession now is afoot which will be at least equal to the 1990-91 recession?
- I don't think it will be as prolonged as 90-91, but I do think it will last 12-18 months and that it will impact recruitment for the next 2-3 years.
I actually think the sad reality is that flying is a career more akin to being an actor or musician. There are far more people training than will ever make a living at it. It isn't marketed that way by the schools but if you accept that there are only around 8000-10000 commercial pilots in the UK then you can see how small the job market really is compared to other professions such as law, armed forces, IT, sales etc. In my view the training schools should be forced (by law) to publish their actual employment results - at least for one stop modular and integrated students. It wouldn't be hard for the airlines for example to feed back to the main schools when they hire a candidate from a particular school and for the school to collate the results. At least then people would go into training with their eyes open to the real statistics.
Training for this career is a high risk gamble even in the good times. In the bad times you might as well go to a casino.
To anyone looking for a job now I really do wish you good fortune, but the real point of my post was to say try not to let the flying thing make you miserable while you job hunt - it is believe it or not (and I say this after 18 months on the line) just a job at the end of the day. It can be very enjoyable and satisfying but also frustrating and tiring. I do like it a lot more than my old IT job, indeed I like it as much as anyone can reasonably expect to enjoy their work but it isn't quite as glamorous, well paid and glitzy as the outside world thinks it is and when the alarm goes off at 4.15am I'm not always filled with feelings of bliss and contentment!
Hope you're enjoying the DB9 WWW ;-)
Desk-pilot