Thanks for shedding some light, I am definitely starry eyed, hence being Mr. Naive. I look at airline pilots with envy and admiration, its a little hard to accept that so many of you HATE your jobs and want out...
Sooo ... You're giving it up for a ... boring job .. that pays terribly (or more accurately, gives a terrible return on time and money invested).
Everyone seems to fall back onto this 'negative'.
The FO's here (Australia) in the QF Dash 8's are on a base wage of about $80K. That doesn't seem terrible for a foot through the door, with a lot of room for improvement.
And as for the "return on time and money invested", I really fail to see how it varies from a dentist, a lawyer or a doctor?
They invest more time (I think its about 5 years) in further education, and I'm sure they would have a similar, if not greater debt than $80K-$100K. Then, they have to land their first job, and they too have to claw their way up the ladder also.
But, I suppose it could be worse. Like operating and cutting people open, or pulling out stinky, rotten teeth. The major up side is helping people and saving lives. But isn't that was pilots are obligated to do also?
I'd much rather sit on the flight deck, staring out the window feeling 'bored' any day.
Being a pilot is a privilege in my eyes and always will be, not only from an intelligence perspective, but from that of health as well.