digits_ wrote: ↑Sun Jan 22, 2023 6:30 pm
I think you are comparing a subgroup of pilots to another sub group of non pilots to make that comparison work.
It's a nice conversation starter but I would say that if you compare a random pilot to a random engineer or lawyer, it would not hold up in the majority of the cases.
I know a lot of lawyers, and they are all super-competitive about promomtion, job titles, and salaries. They routinely leave one firm for another to get a salary bump or a bigger office. Graduate engineers perhaps less so, but professional competence is a big thing in advancement.
Pilots on the other hand do everything they can to avoid leaving their 705 of choice because if they go to a different airline they're right back at square one. No credit for 15, 20, 25 years post-qualification experience. But for as long as they don't land gear-up, if they stick it out, their advancement is assured.
Again, being a professional pilot is a very strange career structure, and it has much more in common with unionized jobs like shop-floor manufacturing, than "engineer" or "lawyer".
DId you hear the one about the jurisprudence fetishist? He got off on a technicality.