With a hobby interest in mechanics, I was attracted to the Army, fixing helicopters, by a glossy magazine, a recruitment Sergeant who was liberal with the truth and an urge to travel. Fortunately, it worked for me.
Left the Army when the career path they wanted me to follow didn't match what I wanted to do. I self-studied for my licence and was prepared to move about a bit. Work has taken me from the top of Norway to the South Pole and lots of places in between. I've never been out of work and 24 years later I still enjoy it and learn new stuff all the time.
My maintenance skills pay the bills, but joining a couple of professional bodies and continuing aviation engineering related study in my own time has kept me interested.
In my opinion, setting your sights on an MRO or airline is limiting you options and possibly your career. They are continually looking to drive down costs and out-source. It is from this sector of the industry that a lot of the doom and gloom seems to come from.
With a mechanical engineering degree, you have other options that could maybe still fulfil your passion. There's a lot of pretty amazing stuff going on in the aerospace industry that doesn't involve turning around an airliner for it's next sector.
Last edited by nodrama; 12th Jan 2011 at 08:17.