Nope, I`m 33, with family and i have all i need, the ray bans have never been my dream, i always wanted to just fly prop`s domestic, but fate would have it that i landed this job flying the 737 when terms an conditions were ok. Even WF will eventually get haunted by the ever ongoing struggle to become more cost efficient.
The fixed wing job marked is slowly going down the drain. Most new pilots see no problem by woking for food as long as they get to call themselves pilots and wear the mentioned Ray ban`s with their fancy uniform.
I`m not judging, I would almost certainly do the same ting in their situation, but i now know a hell of a lot more then i did fresh out of flight school!
When i was a rookie there where many "step stone jobs" with a little less pay and benefits. Jobs that a pilot would have a few years until the experience level got up to a point where you got a job on a turboprop o.l. and so on and so on.. That way, a job in larger companies was a goal in it self!
When i got my current job, i was sure my life was set! Never again would i need to apply for a new job!
I worked hard for many years, flying para jumpers, photo flights, an sightseeing with Cessna`s. I spent all my free time in the hangar, taking every flight i could get, even if it meant spending ha whole weekend in a sleeping bag in the back seat of a 182 somewhere, just to log 2-3 hours!
After a god while i finally got my step stone job on a turboprop. After 2 years i finally got this job..
The industry is taking advantage of the young and hope full pilots, knowing that they will take all kinds of **** as long as they get to fly! New pilots do this because they have ha naive faith that "if i take **** for s few years, I will get a permanent contract, with Lol, Benefits" Well, newsflash: The job flying a 737, fresh out of flight school on a crappy contract has now turned into a step stone job!! Only problem is that there`s no more steps to take after this job.. NO ONE CAN COMPETE WHIT THIS! So, this will most certainly become the new industry standard.