This is the time of year for people to be making choices about what colleges and universities to go to. If you are looking at becoming an airline pilot, you will no doubt be looking at aviation colleges and wondering if it is worth it.
The real question is – what is the likelihood of becoming an airline pilot after you have paid for all the flight training on top of an already expensive college education.
To make a long answer short the likelihood is rather great. All things being equal with a quality education and top notch flight training there is no reason for you not to become a professional pilot.
The industry right now is in a downturn, but you need to be looking out several years from now.
The economy always swings back and forth. Right now, it is BAD but it will be swinging back strong sooner than you may think.
When I was in college getting ready to become an airline pilot was right after Eastern had disappeared, Pan Am was going into bankruptcy and the general thought was the airline industry was going to disappear.
Not the case!
The industry came back jobs were still around. I was even able to find an airline job quickly after graduation flying heavy jets.
Something to keep in mind – if you are a hard worker, friendly and know what you are doing there will always be work for you.
This downturn can even have a positive effect on your job prospects when you graduate from school.
You see, with the state of pilot jobs right now people are leaving the industry. The less committed are finding other careers. You will also find many who are “settling in” to mid-level airline jobs like commuter or regional captains and will stay there when hiring picks back up.
What this can mean for you in 4-6 years is there may be a lot few candidates applying for jobs when the industry picks back up.
With that said – Reality Check Here
Here is a reality of the industry you need to understand – with very few exception you will need to build experience (flight time) before become a nicely paid airline pilot.
These time building jobs are low pay and hard work jobs.
Depending on how hard you work and what you do to advance yourself you could spend several months to years in these jobs.
When you graduate college or earn your commercial pilots license you will have 250-400 hour total flight time. Expect to need 1,000+ hours to be hired with even the smallest airline.
Expect your first couple of years to be slim, but also know just about everyone else has been through the same thing. Looking back on it, it can really be a lot of fun.
If you love aviation and love flying, you will not allow any of this to keep you from following your dream.
As I said in the beginning – if you are just starting out right now there is no reason for you not to be able to become a professional airline pilot.
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