I work for an airline flight training department, & in common with the majority of my colleagues, hold an ATPL with multiple thousands os hours experience. I have been in the industry for the past 12 years & am particularly interested to see 5 of my colleagues leave the company in the past week to persue careers outside of aviation. The feeling is that they wanted to establish themselves in another career before they are to old to make the change, dismayed at a bleak future in the current marketplace, & quite frankly, because they can make significantly more money in the outside world. These individuals were not at risk of redundancy, indeed if anything the outlook is good. One of them told me he was simply tired with the prospect of dealing with more of the frustrations this industry presents.
If I'd known then what I know now, would I have been so enthusiatic? Possibly not.