Is now a good time to be leaving aircraft maintenance?
 

I'm currently a line maintenance mechanic for a large airline. Over the last few years, I've started to lose interest in aviation and have been passively exploring other options for a while. Obviously with COVID going on, I feel that the future of aircraft engineering will be substantial cuts, with fewer perks and worse pay etc. So is now a good time to leave the industry? I have been offered a role as a robotics engineer, initially, its a pay cut but they have an incremental payrise system which means I would be back up to my current salary within 2 years or so. The companies just taken on a few big contracts too, and have assured me that job stability for the next 6 or 7 years at least is looking great! I'm very tempted to leave aviation and enter into the robotics field, but would I be making a huge mistake?

Take it! The aviation trade is volatile at the best of times and at the moment it's as low as I've seen it in 40 years. I'm out of work at 65 and it's hard enough to find any job, never mind as an LAE. Go for security, and, as you've found, the shine can wear off aircraft maintenance eventually.

Take it mate, sounds like an interesting job that could have good prospects. Possibly less exposure to harmful materials/chemicals etc. Maybe friendlier shift patterns?

I'm ready to put my B1 license application in now and I'm at the point of wishing I'd spent my time studying to get into another field.

Similar to yourself I've lost a lot of enthusiasm for aviation over recent years and I think that passion for aviation is definitely a prerequisite for job enjoyment.

Hope whatever choice you make works out for yourself. 👍
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I would suggest you've been offered an opportunity to diversify that many would relish.

Take it !....

As has been stated, employment is cyclical, remember after 9/11 the proverbial bottom fell out of the maintenance world and it took several years for employment levels to be restored. Since then, there have been several well known airline failures plus manufacturing cut backs and redundancies. In the near future, there's going to be a surplus of aircraft maintenance and aviation related engineers with little or no prospect of regaining a similar role.

You can always retain your interest, and participation, in aviation as a volunteer at a museum, and they would be delighted to see you, but frankly as I say, you've been offered a golden opportunity to diversify into another sector, gain new skills and experience and thereafter diversify further if you wish. One question therefore. With this new role, apart from the training required, are they offering any formal qualifications which would be recognised by, and portable to, other potential employers ?

If so, that's another very attractive reason to accept their offer. The long standing problem with the Licence is that, whilst the depth of knowledge and skills required are extensive, the downside is that it's exclusive to aviation and, whilst more employers may now be more aware of the criteria required to obtain one, many are not.

The "allure " of maintenance will always be there for prospective engineers, it's the reason most of us became such in the first place after all, but the prospects are now no longer as extensive as they formerly were.

I would grab it.

I walked away from aviation 2 years ago, after over 30 years. Even before the events of the last few months my advice would have been the same, now it’s a no brainer.

Personally I had got to the stage where the enthusiasm had gone, the only thing holding me back from jacking in aviation was waiting for the right opportunity.

When I saw it, I grabbed it and am now much happier at work. Fewer hours, shorter commute, more job satisfaction and physically less demanding.

Happy days.