The doom and gloom merchants have had no better opportunity to leave the industry and do something else but guaranteed, most of them will be back in a seat within a few years complaining to all and sundry how bad the job is.

“On the flipside to most comments here from what I've heard from those now working in other industries most have received quite a rude awakening”

I also think this is true of some ppl.
Aviation is a very specific skill set and even if there are transferable skills, there will be younger and better trained candidates out there.

Ideally, train in a different field, and, while maintaining the ability to make decisions based on imperfect information (which we do very well) ditch the pilot wank and superiority complex and go with some humility. It WILL serve you well.

The money that pilots earn isn’t as good as you may think. Sure it’s good compared to GA but $350k for a highly skilled professional at the top of their field isn’t a huge amount of money. Captains earning that would be earning less than their contemporaries in law, medicine and management. Most tradies operating their own business earn over $200k

That is true. But Look at a pilot who’s on stand down for 2 or 3 years or longer or even one month on six off like 330.That’s close enough to zero salary for those years.No one is going back to high hours in Long Haul even if they do go back.That has a huge knock on effect on super and compounded loss of pay.if you work in another industry or skill you can change companies.Can’t do that as a pilot easily or at all.
My point is that this industry is too unreliable.Need a plan B.Ask people at Virgin, tiger or Ansett who lost jobs for long periods of time. I’m sure they would say have a backup plan.Not saying you can’t return to flying.Just don’t be reliant on it.

ATO stats for income for various occupations.

Average and median taxable income, salary or wages, and total income, by occupation

It does show the average for all pilots in the industry, but at the median salary level for air transport professionals (ie pilots) they are the highest earning profession on the list that does not require a minimum of a Bachelor's degree. It's really only Surgeons, Anesthetists, Financial Dealers, Psychiatrists, Mining Engineers and Engineering Managers that out earn pilots. The median pilot out earns the median GP, School Principal or Dentist.

For the salaries achievable for FO level in mainline (which was quite junior for the last few years of recruitment) it's really only medical professionals with postgrad qualifications who do better.

For the top salary levels in other professions like In law you'd have to be at a State Supreme Court or Appeal Court Judge level to make significantly more than a 380 Captain.

For the time spent at work and nature of the job I reckon it can't be beaten when it comes to work/pay balance.

Great posts all above but the simple fact is everyone’s situation is different and at the end of the day their own personal situations will dictate their decisions.
However, from a personal point of view over the course of not working since February we have learnt to restructure and amend our expectations and now require much less of a budget than what we had grown use to and to return and maintain min guarantee would be a fantastic work-life balance and to reject extra flying for days off will be a pleasure. :ok:

I live constantly around lawyers and doctors by family connections and whilst their grass is greener in terms of salaries their efforts to get there should not be sold short, and remember not all get there, it’s a hard road. I always would like to be more remunerated but for what I have gone through compared to my wife,

I wouldn’t trade It for all the vaccines on this planet.

Today is the last day in QF for myself and another couple of hundred of my pilot colleagues. I will be thinking of all of them at 4:59 this afternoon, when many careers end in a way that none of us would have ever expected. Farewell. Adieu. Sayonara. Goodbye.

Cheers Shark Patrol, sorry it ended this way. I hope you enjoyed the stint you had, all the best to you and your fellow colleagues with retirement.

LOL, Judges are nowhere near the top of the income tree in law, a senior partner wouldn't get out of bed for A380 captain pay. Yeah but how long does it take to become a senior partner I hear you say? Nowhere near as long as a QF A380 Skipper

It is a stupid argument.
individuals who make senior partner have little chance of becoming an A380 captain and individuals who make A380 captains have little chance of becoming a decent lawyer let alone senior partner.
They are completely different skill sets and different personalities.
I won’t even introduce the discussion about lifestyles.

For many of these, medical doctors have at least 6 years of uni plus >10 years of further on the job training before they can dream of A380 Cpt money. A lot of this time would include work weeks in excess of 60h per week, with days at a time of being on call overnight.
For lawyers, the time frame as above, but miserly pay and exceedingly long hours in their early years, not unlike pilots.

Lifestyle considerations aside, $300K+ is very very well paid in comparison to the average punter. Other jobs without tertiary education pulling this sort of money might be people doing FIFO to Africa or offshore oil rigs (generally dangerous)... That's not to discount the many years of training and specialisation one could regard being PIC of a heavy jet signifies. Unfortunately these days that esteem isn't shared by all in the general public.

A380 Captains are stood down for three plus years on $0 pay.
They got stood down at the start of 2020 and won’t come back till late 2023-2024.Most likely the A380 will not come back. Plus The pay and conditions for the A380 dies when the aircraft goes. It’s only high if you do the overtime and it won’t be doing that kind of flying anymore.The A350 pay isn’t within $100k for the same hours worked.Anyway The good old days of high T and C are gone and are only getting worse. Very poor comparison.
Any lawyer, doctor etc can work for a number of companies. Last I checked they are not stood down unpaid? How many of those jobs get stood down for three years?
Good Barristers earn way more than any Captain. As do Doctors and surgeons. But at least they have more job certainty and portability.
Flying is a dying and uncertain career. What options do Captains have that are stood down? None in aviation.
Good luck to you if you want to rely on that alone. The ones stood down are not getting paid for years so all the best. The Stories are touching but they don’t pay things called bills and mortgages.

Yeah, but you have to actually want to be a lawyer... :hmm:

Many other professions also allow you to continue working past 65 and don’t mind if your health isn’t so great. Due to other country’s restrictions, a 65 year old pilot is mostly limited to domestic, assuming he can still hold a medical, or a few specialist roles such as sim instruction or recruitment.

A top barrister can still be pulling in big money when he’s 70 and has arthritis and failing eyesight.

a glance at qrewroom suggests theres a couple

Vaccine is right around the corner, those guys wont be stood down forever. The world has learnt protocol and procedure from this virus. Next around they wont muck about closing borders

Along with quite a few self appointed medical and scientific “experts” as well, given the site has now deteriorated to full on Covid hoax, anti-vaxxer, election and other ludicrous conspiracies. The Alex Jones Show makes more sense at times.

I can’t think of anything more miserable than working a high stress job at that age with failing health, when you should be enjoying your golden years, no matter how much $$ they pay you.

In some ways a forced retirement age is a good thing.

VR and ER
 

Around 200 Pilots exit Q on VR and ER with an average of 15,000 hrs each, that's around 3,000,000 hrs of flying experience out the door in one fell swoop!
Neither the Wee Irish Leprechaun nor the Board have even acknowledged nor do I think they understand the implications of this loss (and neither do I think they care anyway!!)
I just hope it doesn't come back to bite them on the arse in the future.

They don’t care. If they could pay a 200hr cadet 50K a year to sit in the LHS of an A380 (well....787/350 going forward) they would.

And AJ celebrating Qantas’ 100 years, most of the VR/ER have been there for a third of that 100 years!
Now that is a contribution to Qantas!