No doubt the moderators will have the answer, but is it just me, or have the number of posts on the wannabes forum reduced of late? I have to say that in many cases the breadth and quality of posts is not the same as it was a year or so ago.
Could this be symptomatic of the current gloom and doom and a general swing away from aviation as a career option?
There was an article in Flt Int about 18 months ago which talked about the fact that a career as a pilot was not seen as being as glamorous as it was in the 70’s and 80’s. The article went on to say that airlines had noticed that whist the number of applicants for cadet schemes still attracted the similar sorts of numbers, the calibre of applicant was not as high as they would have liked. It was suggested that something should be done to improve the image of the profession and attract a higher quality of cadet, or the industry would suffer in the long run.
Whilst in the short-term job prospects may look bleak, things WILL improve, particularly in Europe. If ‘should-be’ wannabes were being put off looking at aviation as a career, then ‘would-be’ wannabes are probably now joining them after the recent set of events and the sort of comments and negativity we are reading here on Pprune.
Career advisors very rarely put forward a career as a pilot, perhaps because it is not a rational choice. I.e.:
Horrendous training costs,
No social life while studying
The possible loss of partner during training!
The intense level of study
The poverty if self funding
The breadline salary if instructing
The comparatively low starting salary of a FO
The antisocial working hours
The danger
No Home life
Etc etc
Not really a rational choice of career path.
Perhaps the reason that so many fail the psychometric tests, is that the tests favour rational behaviour!!!
Now all of us irrational pilot types who have paid the cash and got the t shirt know that the good out ways the bad!..it does doesn't it?????
What we should be doing here is encouraging the next generation of wanabees and not scaring them away. The situation will improve and jobs will come back. Maybe not next week but hopefully soon.
Lets not take a snapshot in time and turn to gloom and despair. The industry needs quaulity and not just dreamers. Lets not put everyone else off!
This site was an inspiration and huge help to me…if I tuned in now, I think I would take up another career!
Think positive it Will get better, but there might not be anyone out there interested!
[ 28 September 2001: Message edited by: clear prop!!! ]