So to summarise Beelzebub - there are a very limited number of good jobs, and thousands of hopefuls destined to have their illusions shattered.
So we agree!
Oh yes. However the advice and comment is the same irrespective.
But you haven't addressed the boring repetitive thing. If you indeed flew 707's you'll remember a time when pilots knew things like - how to fly the aeroplane! Themselves! Without the aid or interference of a computer!
And even a time when the Ops Manual was a compact document - rather than a biblical tome.
I hadn't addressed it because it seemed rhetorical, but if you want an answer. Twenty odd thousand hours of doing anything is always going to have a "boring and repetitive" element to it. However it is a "state of mind" that has the potential to come back and bite you. I often walk from the car park to work and remind myself that every major accident started on a day just like this one, with a crew that didn't for one second believe that day was going to be anything other than "routine," or if you prefer "boring and repetitive." That level of complacency is a natural by-product of experience, and in itself requires self awareness and managing. An inexperienced F/O who professes to feel this way on a regular basis is either something
unusually special or simply not staying ahead of the game. The OP was making these claims on his initial training flights.
In my experience cadets fly the airplane very well. Obviously, (as with anybody) it is a learning curve, and initially a very steep one. As for the "aid or interference of a computer" I am afraid that is part of the modern toolkit. Automation is an ingrained part of their training doctrine because it is now such an ingrained part of the operating architecture. The transition from older first and second generation jet transports to "glass cockpit," was probably more traumatic than that faced by new entrant cadets today who are trained into these philosophies from onset. I remember in the seventies and eighties the term "automation complacency" was a regular feature in so many aircraft accidents and incidents, and in those days it often related to something as relatively basic as autopilot or auto throttle. The
vox pop term "children of the magenta line" so often attributed to new pilots, is enshrined in an address by a senior American Airlines training captain to an audience also partly comprising senior American Airlines captains. It is something that we
all (to a greater or lesser degree) are. Once again, it is a complacency that requires self awareness and needs guarding against.
The Op's manual is a "biblical tome" these days, because the technology is far more developed and intricate. In addition the operating philosophies have matured in not only the hard technical aspects, but as importantly in the non-technical aspects. Again in the sixties, seventies and eighties the frequency with which airliners were flown into hillsides did nothing to advocate the op's manual being a "compact tome." For any pilot, but particularly for a low experienced pilot, there are plenty of things they can be doing to stay well ahead of the game. Those that fail to stay "ahead of the game" are often the ones highlighting their "boredom." It is a vocation, but there is no getting away from the fact that it is also a job, and one that does require a constant maintenance of performance and contingency planning. Routine is a part of that job, but (and particularly) in short haul flying, it raises a red flag when an inexperienced pilot claims they are "sitting around doing nothing 80% of the time."
Long answer, but there you go.