Life and lifestyle of a pilot
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: UK
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Northernsky,
Thanks for the candid insight! I always feel it's very sad when someone is in a career they now regret taking up. If it's any consolation I ended up working in Management and IT after Graduating in the early 1990's when none of the airlines were running cadet schemes (was actually waiting for final selection stage when BA froze recruitment!). I've worked for 10 years now sitting in stuffy offices having endless pointless meetings and staring for hours at a relentless tide of email hating nearly every blasted day of it. Rest assured the glossy Graduate brochures for Management careers don't tell the true story about office work either. The days of lavish expense accounts and nice perks are gone. The eradication of secretaries has meant that as a junior or middle manager you spend huge amounts of time on administrative tasks rather than things which utilise your specialist skills and the hugely increased workload and pressure makes for long days with often no breaks and little time for any fun or human contact. In addition budget constraints and a proliferation of bean counters mean that you can't just get on and change things - you have to fight the bureaocrats every step of the way. Nobody should live like this and I've reached a point where I'm about to get out of it and start an ATPL. I've spent 10 years staring out of my office window watching you guys up there in the blue and I'd like to join you!
Of all my friends it seems ironic that the happiest are either teachers, work for the Forestry commission or for themsleves - none of which are considered either 'sexy' or well paid careers.
Seems as though the quality of working life is diminishing across the patch!
Desk-pilot
Thanks for the candid insight! I always feel it's very sad when someone is in a career they now regret taking up. If it's any consolation I ended up working in Management and IT after Graduating in the early 1990's when none of the airlines were running cadet schemes (was actually waiting for final selection stage when BA froze recruitment!). I've worked for 10 years now sitting in stuffy offices having endless pointless meetings and staring for hours at a relentless tide of email hating nearly every blasted day of it. Rest assured the glossy Graduate brochures for Management careers don't tell the true story about office work either. The days of lavish expense accounts and nice perks are gone. The eradication of secretaries has meant that as a junior or middle manager you spend huge amounts of time on administrative tasks rather than things which utilise your specialist skills and the hugely increased workload and pressure makes for long days with often no breaks and little time for any fun or human contact. In addition budget constraints and a proliferation of bean counters mean that you can't just get on and change things - you have to fight the bureaocrats every step of the way. Nobody should live like this and I've reached a point where I'm about to get out of it and start an ATPL. I've spent 10 years staring out of my office window watching you guys up there in the blue and I'd like to join you!
Of all my friends it seems ironic that the happiest are either teachers, work for the Forestry commission or for themsleves - none of which are considered either 'sexy' or well paid careers.
Seems as though the quality of working life is diminishing across the patch!
Desk-pilot
Well put Northern Sky.
What I once thought would be a good career I cannot now wait to retire from.
The other problem to be faced is that with seniority being so important it is very difficult to shift between employers with a large salary loss.
I think that the job is truly ruined by mismanagement in airlines. Airline management seems to attract the most incompetent people with the largest egos. (with a few exceptions of course).
I would be truly dismayed if any child of mine wanted to follow this career.
What I once thought would be a good career I cannot now wait to retire from.
The other problem to be faced is that with seniority being so important it is very difficult to shift between employers with a large salary loss.
I think that the job is truly ruined by mismanagement in airlines. Airline management seems to attract the most incompetent people with the largest egos. (with a few exceptions of course).
I would be truly dismayed if any child of mine wanted to follow this career.
Join Date: Apr 2001
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It was starting to sound like a reverse Monty Python sketch, "We worked 25 hrs a day, 8 days a week....!"
Thanks for the balance in the above posts.
EI666, I'd like to give you the same advice as my father gave me. Go to college, go to university, (one with a University Air Squadron),get a good job to pay for your CPL. Then you also have qualification you can use when someone drives into you and you lose your medical.
You'll always have the degree once you've got it AND the modern airlines like graduates.
For the record, I didn't listen. He may have been right.
Thanks for the balance in the above posts.
EI666, I'd like to give you the same advice as my father gave me. Go to college, go to university, (one with a University Air Squadron),get a good job to pay for your CPL. Then you also have qualification you can use when someone drives into you and you lose your medical.
You'll always have the degree once you've got it AND the modern airlines like graduates.
For the record, I didn't listen. He may have been right.
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: UK
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EI 666
There's so much to the job. The stick and rudder skills are bread and butter these days. If you want to be a pilot..accept criticism without flying off the handle and being insulting. It's a close and confined office and personal skills are v. important.
Learn from what these people are trying to tell you..rather than ditch their experience in your bin because you think you know better. If you react like that on your first sim I guarantee it will be your last.
There's so much to the job. The stick and rudder skills are bread and butter these days. If you want to be a pilot..accept criticism without flying off the handle and being insulting. It's a close and confined office and personal skills are v. important.
Learn from what these people are trying to tell you..rather than ditch their experience in your bin because you think you know better. If you react like that on your first sim I guarantee it will be your last.
