Originally Posted by
The Scud 911
I might be going off the track here but as my education is coming to an end I'm unsure of being content in a career as an engineer. I keep noticing myself checking out airplanes and admiring them.
Hi there! I'm just starting out myself, so I have no wise words of aviation experience, but I have just completed my 20's, so I can give more general advice about finding the right path for you if that helps
I think what's important to remember is that you're 22 - you have a lot of time on your side, so it's not something you need to feel pressuring you right away. You're in a good place - you have a fair idea what interests you and you've just earnt a very useful and sought after degree. I also think it's normal to have a lot of doubts coming out of studies - when I was at university we used to call it 4th year blues (university was 3 years, so it's the uncertainty at the end of it) and it affected lots of us. There's also no way to really know where your engineering degree will take you. My father in law studied electrical engineering in the 70's, and was always thinking he'd get an office job somewhere like the post ofice and work his way up to a senior position and a good pension. What actually happened was he went to a job fair after graduation and got a job with a Swedish company called Ericsson. They were known for being good at making phones, so he thought "office, design phones, work way up". Actually he spent most of the next 25 years traveling the globe working on the new mobile phone technology. Similarly my cousin finished his engineering degree 2 years ago and is now on a gap year volunteering for engineers without borders in Vietnam. I guess my point is, you have the qualification, and you never know - I've had a lot of jobs, honestly the one's I've enjoyed and the one's I've hated really haven't been necessarily related to the field. My advice would be give it a go, at the very least it could be a 5 year job to pay for flying, or it could turn out you love it and the shine wore off flying... I just think it's important to see where that could go.
Originally Posted by
The Scud 911
The only thing that's holding me back is my general lack of confidence in everyday life and low self esteem. This cases me to lack focus, clearity, assertivness and I'm also easily persuaded. As I was finishing high school the realization came to me that if I were to show up at the airline interview with personal traits such as these I would most likely be rejected.
Well, I've never applied to an airline, but yeah, I wouldn't think that would be a great cover letter, but what is important is you've identified your weaknesses. You know how long it takes some of us to become aware of ours? I'll be a little ageist/patronising here, so I do apologise, but I honestly believe some of those traits come with the time in life you find yourself in. Easily persuaded? That's 90% of people under 25 I know. I think you'll find you will change beyond measure over the next few years. And that's from personal experience. When I think of myself 9 years ago to today I'm almost a different person. That said, Low self esteem is always a tough one, and I'm no psychologist. It can affect any of use at any time, but I've also seen people go through great times in their life following lows just through small changes. Again - none of this needs to cause you to feel pressure right now.
Originally Posted by
The Scud 911
I guess what I'm looking for is an advice if it's still worth a shot. Can I still change myself so that I, myself, would feel confident going to an interview and stepping inside of a cockpit?
Which career to go into.. that's a toughie, and really nobody else can answer that. I think you've been really brave acknowledging some pretty tough feelings online and really those are most important. You want to fly, you have a degree... ultimately both are doorways you can explore and they aren't mutually exclusive. What really matters is the feelings you have that are making you unhappy. Personally I'd probably try both doors and see how they make you feel.
Flying, like engineering could take you anywhere - it could be you enjoy recreational flying, but find doing it for a job takes the fun away. Or maybe you'll find out you love to teach flying to new pilots and not want to deliver passengers/cargo from A-B. Or maybe it'll be you like flying solo and you enjoy small regional work. I think most of us going in to flying are looking to get to that first officer seat on a commercial jet, but at the same time when we're starting out we know nothing about doing the job day to day.
Finally I wouldn't worry too much about those airline interviews. They won't come up until many many hours of flying, and by then you will be a pilot in your own right. My advice for flying is you've wanted to do this for so long, you still want to do it, you have to try it for yourself or you'll always regret it. But do yourself a favour and take the pressure off of it having to be a career. I don't know if you've flown yet, but if not, do one of those experience days, or and introductory pack and go from there. At the end of the day, how can any of us truly know for sure if we want to spend our lives flying for 10's of thousands of hours when we haven't flown for 10? Once you start flying, I think it'll be a fairly natural decision tree to take you where you want to be with flying.
Ultimately My personal belief is if you go into this wanting to reach an airline and fly for 10 hours, realise it isn't for you, and stop - you haven't failed. If you fly for 500 hours and never get a CPL, but are perfectly happy flying on the weekends, you haven't failed. If you fly for 2000 hours and get yourself all the way to the interview and get nocked back, you still haven't failed or wasted the money if you've loved doing it.
It's only if, say you've flown for 30 hours, but still don't really like it, and then go and pay up front for a CPL course because you started this so have to see it through or equivalent that it's wasting your money.
Trying something you've wanted to do for 10 years will never be a waste of money. Spending 10's of thousands upfront for something you're not sure of might end up being.
Ultimately my advice is take it slow, and fly. Best of luck, I hope to see you up there one day