Knowing if you are going to enjoy something before you do it is a difficult piece of knowledge to gain for anything you're considering doing. If this question relates to something as significant as your future career, it is worth gaining as much knowledge as possible before committing yourself to this specific path. Like many other careers, the pathway to becoming a professional pilot is expensive and challenging. However, the challenges don't stop when you get your license or even your first job. Like life itself, a professional pilot career is a journey of exploration to find what fits you and the life you want for yourself. In this post, I want to share some of the honest realities of a pilot career that might not be immediately obvious to someone who has never worked in the industry. Hopefully, these examples will help you to decide if this is something you want for your life.
Many people who decide to start the journey to becoming a professional pilot begin making sacrifices to reach their dream well before they start training. Knowing full well that pilot training is expensive, pilots often start saving and sacrificing on everyday expenses to be in a position to afford the training. This can take years of focus and dedication, but if this is how you start your career, you'll likely have already proved you have the right attitude to succeed in a competitive industry. As previously mentioned, the next step is to complete the required licensing to gain your first pilot job. You don't need to be a genius to complete a commercial pilot license, but you do need to have the focus and dedication to push through the challenging parts of the course and prioritise the requirements of the course over other parts of your life, like socialising with friends or time spent on your hobbies.
Once you have your license, you can start looking for your first aviation job. Depending on your location, your previous work experience, the time of year, the state of the industry, what kind of aviation company you want to work for and many other factors, you may not end up flying in your first aviation job. Often your first job out of pilot training will allow you gain industry experience that is required to get your first pilot job. This means you will also have be patient and driven to gain what you can from any non-flying jobs you work in before seeing an opportunity to start flying professionally. When you get your first flying job you'll likely start flying very basic jobs to learn and prove your skills and reliability. As you progress you'll be given opportunities that will challenge and interest you more.
Life being what it is, no job will give you everything you want and just as it is with other careers, you will likely have to move to other companies to progress, be paid more and be given new opportunities. This will likely mean moving cities, states, provinces or even countries to get the skills and experience required by your dream pilot job. This 'requirement' of a pilot career always excited me and I saw it as a bonus, not a sacrifice. However, as I aged and wanted to settle in one place I found I was less willing to chase the next international opportunity to progress my career.
At some point, like me, you will likely reprioritise the various parts of your life and find that your dream job may no longer be what it was when you started your career. My advice to you, before you start out on your journey, is to understand that you will change as you go through your career and life and be prepared for things in your life to change with you. Make the most of opportunities when they arise and don't be afraid to take the path less travelled. You may not always be in a position to take opportunities when they arise later in life, so enjoy the freedom to explore them early in your career. This will give you the most options later in your career and allow you to find the best balance in your life.
- Fly your own track!
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