Why the hell not?
I have known F/O's who used to be doctors, teachers, lawyers, vets, engineers and much else. Many Captains left school and went straight into the Airforce where they learned to fly upside down and developed an innate sense of superiority. They then joined the airlines, were promoted in under five minutes and became trainers ten minutes after that. Once in place they proceeded to deny any involvement in training to First officers, did their best to deny them command unless they had followed the same career path as the god like Captains and generally insisted that every activity, from work outside the cockpit to starting the bloody engines was the sole preserve of the "officer class". They also acted like utter arses in the simulator, believing that only those with the correct background should be graded as suitable and thinking that pressing every button on the panel in order to cause a mental breakdown at the front was "training".
Most of these idiots were simply fortunate to be in the right place at the right time but were utterly convinced that it was their god like powers that led them into training. And furthermore, everyone else was/is useless.
Imagine this kind of scenario in any other profession.
Aviation and the seniority system is the biggest waste of people's talent ever devised by humanity. I am very glad that I shall shortly be calling it a day. Redundancy can sometimes be both an eye opener and a blessing.
Last edited by zeddb; 19th Feb 2014 at 16:04.