career change
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2003
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From: Canada
career change
Hi,Need some suggestions please.
I have 15 years of aircraft maintenance experience as a mechanic,from radials to medium size commuters and am thinking of changing my profession.Any suggestions as to what is out there for someone with my experience.Thanx
I have 15 years of aircraft maintenance experience as a mechanic,from radials to medium size commuters and am thinking of changing my profession.Any suggestions as to what is out there for someone with my experience.Thanx
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 164
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From: Alloway
Job change
I know an ex A&C who now works for the AA repairing broken down flash cars and he loves it. Me I took early retirement after
44 years on Aircraft most of it great (forget the ATP years at Gla,
so be careful as it would be hard to get back if you lic went.
44 years on Aircraft most of it great (forget the ATP years at Gla,
so be careful as it would be hard to get back if you lic went.
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 310
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From: australia
I'm in exactly the same position - 15 years busting my butt on regionals, just made it in the big league and got ditched after a restructure.
I'm considering studying Law, and going back and concentrating on Aviation Law or Psychology and getting involved in Human factors in accidents and incidents.
I've heard, (in all seriousness), of blokes in a similar position going and working on fairground equipment. It pays good wages, requires same attention to detail, as you can imagine, and is far less stressful. Apparently, big fun parks just love ex-aviation mechanics.
K
I'm considering studying Law, and going back and concentrating on Aviation Law or Psychology and getting involved in Human factors in accidents and incidents.
I've heard, (in all seriousness), of blokes in a similar position going and working on fairground equipment. It pays good wages, requires same attention to detail, as you can imagine, and is far less stressful. Apparently, big fun parks just love ex-aviation mechanics.
K
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Joined: Feb 2000
Aviation Qualifications: CPL
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From: UK
Or put a suit on and use your no doubt considerable experience on the design, testing, approval and certification side. There are too few people with real hands on experience this side of the fence although you'll probably find it hard getting into this sort of work initially - you'll have to persuade potential employers that your experience is worth at-least as much as the more normal academic qualifications (it is, although doubtless whilst you'll be injecting some useful experience, you'll find yourself absorbing theory, maths, etc. that "the others" will be very good at). It's a satisfying line of work getting aeroplanes right that will be out there hopefully doing a job well for the next 20-30 years.
G
G
Joined: May 2003
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From: UK
New job
I recently saw some Rail engineer positions on http://www.aviationjobsearch.com which seemed to offer a lot more money than we can expect! Maybe worth a try.....
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 166
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From: uk
I would advise you to keep at it.Several years ago I felt the same and ended up trying my hand at one or two things after being made redundant but the bottom line is that you just can't make the money.
An un-licenced fella can expect to earn at least 25K-30K in the right job and if you make the effort to get the licence's and approvals afterward's [even if you have to invest a few thousand pounds of your own money in a type course] then earnings of 45-50K are not unreasonable.
This sort of money is just not available to an inexperienced person trying a new career unless you are very lucky.It's alright to take an enjoyable new job that pays poorly,but at the end of the day it's the readies in the bank that counts.Good Luck and don't give up.
An un-licenced fella can expect to earn at least 25K-30K in the right job and if you make the effort to get the licence's and approvals afterward's [even if you have to invest a few thousand pounds of your own money in a type course] then earnings of 45-50K are not unreasonable.
This sort of money is just not available to an inexperienced person trying a new career unless you are very lucky.It's alright to take an enjoyable new job that pays poorly,but at the end of the day it's the readies in the bank that counts.Good Luck and don't give up.
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 110
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From: Hants
Interesting thread. I'm considering a career change away from software (No, don't stop reading yet...), stumbled across this forum. What chance of starting out in aero engineering in my late 30's? How did you guys get started (I assume a lot earlier in life)?
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Joined: Feb 2000
Aviation Qualifications: CPL
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From: UK
RR - Aero Engineering is a narrow term to describe a lot of different jobs. Would you care to be more specific about what sort of work you're interested in and I'm sure one of us can give you some steers.
G
G
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 17
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From: French Riviera
Job change...
....Hi
I have connections with staff working on private yatch in the south of France....
I think you 'll have to go for a "Class 4 license" as a yatch engineer...then you can get a decent job...but you'll have to consider changing of "Boss" every year/2years....many staff agencies in Antibes....
The pay is "off shore" but don't expect to be back home every night.
Anyway one of my collegues that was an engineer for 20 yrs now
owns a Casino in Dakar (Senegal)....
Good luck.
I have connections with staff working on private yatch in the south of France....
I think you 'll have to go for a "Class 4 license" as a yatch engineer...then you can get a decent job...but you'll have to consider changing of "Boss" every year/2years....many staff agencies in Antibes....
The pay is "off shore" but don't expect to be back home every night.
Anyway one of my collegues that was an engineer for 20 yrs now
owns a Casino in Dakar (Senegal)....
Good luck.
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 1
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From: Craggy island
I got off aircraft after 15 years, and can tell you there are lots of things out there that don't involve oil under the fingernails (unless you really like that kind of thing).
I got into system safety analysis, simply by knowing what an aircraft system was. A rigger friend of mine quit at the same time, spent a few months collecting licenses, then chucked it all in. He now does change control for IT companies.
Rather than focus on the primary technical skills, you'd be surprised how easy it is to talk up the operational environment that we all worked in.
Sure, they're not the most riveting (see what I did there?) jobs in the world, but the pay is surprisingly good, and when you get old it's nice to sit in a warm office. Oh yes, and have clean fingernails.
I got into system safety analysis, simply by knowing what an aircraft system was. A rigger friend of mine quit at the same time, spent a few months collecting licenses, then chucked it all in. He now does change control for IT companies.
Rather than focus on the primary technical skills, you'd be surprised how easy it is to talk up the operational environment that we all worked in.
Sure, they're not the most riveting (see what I did there?) jobs in the world, but the pay is surprisingly good, and when you get old it's nice to sit in a warm office. Oh yes, and have clean fingernails.
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Joined: Feb 2000
Aviation Qualifications: CPL
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From: UK
The only person I've ever met who thought working standards in aviation were low used to design Nuclear Reactors for a living.
We are very employable, us aeroplane gingerbeers, because of our technical skills but at-least as much because we can prove a safety and quality obsession that goes down very well in the non aviation technical world.
Mind you, I'm impressed that bubblecard found an IT company that knows what change control is. Mrs Genghis programmes IBM mainframes and her tales of working standards in some parts of the IT industry (especially the financial services bits) make my hair stand on end (or at least consider keeping my life savings in an old sock under the bed.
G
We are very employable, us aeroplane gingerbeers, because of our technical skills but at-least as much because we can prove a safety and quality obsession that goes down very well in the non aviation technical world.
Mind you, I'm impressed that bubblecard found an IT company that knows what change control is. Mrs Genghis programmes IBM mainframes and her tales of working standards in some parts of the IT industry (especially the financial services bits) make my hair stand on end (or at least consider keeping my life savings in an old sock under the bed.
G
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 133
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From: Canada
I made the transition from AME (Canada) to design and certification. Although I like my job it was a long hard struggle to lose the prejudices I gained as an AME and become proficient.
We are presently looking for more people to come on board in the same way but are having very little luck.
As mentioned, very few engineers have preactical experience on real aircraft. An experienced mechanic is an ideal candidate for design and certification.
We are presently looking for more people to come on board in the same way but are having very little luck.
As mentioned, very few engineers have preactical experience on real aircraft. An experienced mechanic is an ideal candidate for design and certification.
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 10
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From: near an airport, uk
Shame to hear I am not the only one with these career change thoughts, wasn't there a time when it used to be fun? I know of a couple of guys who have left to become corgi gas fitters, earning a very similar amount to us (if not more). Oh, and no shift work, with a free van thrown in!
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 17
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From: French Riviera
Yep , I often apply for the Job of Operation duty officer in order to end up as an oustation mgr...they say that an engineer is too rare so they don t allow our people to change....we can do any job in an airline but no one wants to do ours...