Pilot shortage - I wish!
I am not by nature a pessimist but I think the aviation business is in a more precarious predicament than it has been for a long while.
I may be unpopular for saying this but I feel that a number of agencies are jumping on the band-wagon and taking advantage of the current situation. I am not against the idea of "marketing" but do we really need all these courses to teach us how to "pass" an interview? Is there not an element of manipulation and competitiveness involved? Surely, in the selection/interview process, we should be honest - perhaps a touch of "what you see is what you get!".
The aviation industry has always been cyclical and business is always about predicating the future but my feeling is that our future is very uncertain. Things could do either way and it's best not to put all your eggs in one basket.
My comments are not intended to put anyone off wanting to be a professional pilot - a job which I have done for over 25 years, much of it quite enjoyable. However, I become more and more concerned with what I hear and see. Pilots working very long hours with arguably unreasonable contracts and punitive type bonds. There seems to be very little long term planning in many companies with very tight margins and we only need a small "hiccup" for things to go awry.
Many will say that this is just the way things are and to an extent I have to agree but I cannot help feeling that we are due for a big shake-up in the industry very soon.
I speak as a pilot with over 14,000 hours with 9,000 on jet transport aircraft who has been unemployed for over two years. I am now giving serious consideration to taking a job in a different industry which although would not be as lucrative as avaition certainly has better conditions of service and a greater element of security.