Am I crazy for being 28 with a computer science degree switching to aviation

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RaiseTheDed@reddit

If you're doing it for the money, yes. It's not easy money, you won't be making bank working 12 days a month for at least 5-10 years.

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TxAggieMike@reddit

/s. Funny how folks get enticed about ends results and place no consideration on what is required to achieve them.

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Small_Chicken1085@reddit

It’s my fantasy defense mechanism. I’m stuck in it 24 hours a day. Just give me the keys to the 747, sir. I’m ready.

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TxAggieMike@reddit

Speaking of keys and the big jet…

Once while waiting for a flight at Terminal C, I noticed a pilot walking across the ramp jingling his keys as he went.

Two jets were following him so they could nab his parking spot once he pulled away.

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Small_Chicken1085@reddit

I hope one of them had their turn signal on.

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

I’m pretty sure that’s how most people did it before they became pilots.

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

I wasn’t saying it’s easy money, but my buddy who is younger than me making a solid $140k/year with 5 years of experience, he isn’t struggling and enjoys the work life balance he gets.

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I love flying, and I want to go where the wind takes me (literally). Sitting in a cubicle is draining. I don’t want to be a millionaire but I just want a livable wage doing something that isn’t soul sucking.

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Commercial_Meat_8522@reddit

If you have the money to train and can wait out the 5-10 years of spending a lot and then getting paid very little then go for it

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RaiseTheDed@reddit

Then you aren't crazy!

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Ok_Bar4002@reddit

Did it at about 30 with an EE degree. Worth it.

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cristi_nebunu@reddit

you started or finished by 30?

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Ok_Bar4002@reddit

Left my engineering gig in my late 20’s. Went full speed. Got a few furloughs in 2020 thanks to Covid. Didn’t go back to engineering like most of my friends and kept taking any odd flying job I could get. Now at a legacy while they are stuck trying to get back in at regionals. I got very lucky with post covid hiring but I also worked hard to set myself up to be available to be one of the lucky ones. I would say “I wouldn’t change it for the world.” But the reality is, if I could go back I would have ignored the doubters (mostly well intentioned “you have a great career don’t give it up for debt and a shot at a 20k a year regional job”) and I would have started flying full time sooner.

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stratjeff@reddit

I'll never judge anyone for pursuing passion over money, so you do you.

But.

If you've got a CompSci degree and are struggling to pay bills, you've got bigger problems to work on.

Becoming a pilot will likely cost $40-80k depending how you do it.

The first few years as a paid pilot you will likely be making <$50k per year for multiple years.

The next few years you'll likely be making between $50k-$100k, depending on the route you take.

Then, perhaps 5-10 years into this, you'll make a "safe" $80k-130k as a right seater somewhere, working 15-20 days a month.

Then, perhaps 5-10 years after that, you could be making $150k-200k working 10-15 days a month and approaching the lifestyle of pilots you may know.

You're, at minimum, 10 years away from that for the average pilot career.

As a software engineer, your starting salary is $150k in most cities, going to $300k in high demand cities and expertise. You have more lifetime earnings potential in software, and advancing into management.

YMMV.

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BraveSeaworthiness21@reddit

As a software adjacent employee, 150K is starting salary in Bay Area, Seattle, NY and maybe a couple other places like Austin only. Just for the record. That too for FAANG-like companies.

But point still mostly holds.. pretty sure it still averages around 100K in most places EZ

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ginamegi@reddit

FWIW I’m a software engineer at a good company in a non New York or California city, I have about 8 years of experience and just got bumped past $150k. Our entry level engineers are closer to $90-$100k. Most devs aren’t making that $200k+ FAANG money. Still great compared to the CFI income though

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ammo359@reddit

That starting salary number is only valid for FAANG, and that just barely. You’ll be closer to 60% of those numbers at most cases. And that’s ignoring the current apocalypse where companies are spending insane money on AI instead of people.

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

Yeah, this. I only make $60k in my region.

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cobrahawk77@reddit

Don’t spend too long on this sub. Lots of people come here to complain about aviation and make it seem like a hopeless dead end and that you’re completely damning yourself trying to get into it.

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MiniTab@reddit

No. I started flight training at 27 when I was a mechanical engineer. I started flying professionally at 30. Eventually got hired at United and FedEx. I make way more than I ever did as an engineer, but the first 10 years of my career were financially quite challenging.

Don’t do it for the money, as most people that start out don’t make it to the top airlines. But if you really enjoy flying and don’t want to be in an office all day, it’s a nice way to make a living. I don’t regret it for a second.

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

How did you get hired at United without starting at a regional if I may ask?

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MiniTab@reddit

I was at Skywest for over 7 years.

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Fearless-Director-24@reddit

No

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UNDR08@reddit

I was 28, was a cop for 7 years, and left to go be a pilot. Now I’m flying for a major airline.

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

That’s amazing! What made you want to switch(

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UNDR08@reddit

Money and airplanes.

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

Airplanes are cool. I sit on my lunch break and watch airplanes fly above me in my car and stalk FlightRadar24 daydreaming about being up there 😂

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audrikr@reddit

Honestly, we'll need pilots longer than we might need people who can sling code at this point, so the idea isn't crazy.

Your expectations are pretty unrealistic though - sure, if you pass all your checkrides and ratings first or second try, get in with the big carriers, and get some tenure, you might make bank. It's gonna suck for a long time and you'll make minimal money - like, think 5-10 years of holidays and weekends and nights.

I'd start trying to get your PPL and go from there. See if you even like it.

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Ouchies81@reddit

I wouldn't be quick to discount programmers. The crop of LLMs are more leverage than a carte blanch end of the career. AI doesn't understand context, novel situations, and you still need a detailed description someone in the IT field can provide. Worse, those points haven't stopped organizations from implementing it anyway.

Which is just tech debt and job security at its worst, or a reason for a programmer to always overlook the product in the same way pilots overlook autopilot.

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audrikr@reddit

I work a programming job. I totally agree with you, and also, I think it is going to increase productivity to the extent that companies are going to cut jobs. I'm already seeing it happen at my own org. Tech jobs are a bloodbath right now, and I'd say it's at least partly due to LLM promises - sure it's not replacing programmers fully, but it's absolutely making them faster.

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

It’s draining as all get out to sit at a desk the way I do. I’ve also read that commercial pilots don’t care what your bachelors is in as long as you have a bachelors to begin with. Maybe I’m wrong?

I live near a small airport. Would I need to get ahold of them and see if they allow someone to go up with a pilot to check it out?

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audrikr@reddit

I get it, I'm also at a desk job. Any bachelor's is fine. But the training takes a while, and is tough, and lots of other people have thought the same as you. Bachelor's doesn't guarantee you a job, it just gives you a small edge in hiring if you're on paper with the same creds/hours/checkride passes.

What you're looking for is a "discovery flight". Most often you'll get them from flight schools, but can give the local airport a call to see if they work with groups, it depends on the airport who is flying there.

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ginamegi@reddit

Look up flight schools at the airport and go on a discovery flight. The common advice is do a discovery flight and if you like it, start working on your PPL, then think harder if it’ll be a career swap you actually want before you quit your job

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WhenInDoubtGoAround@reddit

I’m middle-aged. I left a career in medicine to become a flight instructor in my late thirties. Friends and peers told me it was a foolish decision, and perhaps they’re right, but so far the only regret I have is that I didn’t make the switch sooner. I enjoy my job so much, even if its just doing slam-and-goes, that I come tired but content.

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flyboychuckles@reddit

As someone who went the other way, I am the crazy one...

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fuckman5@reddit

Do tell more

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Glum-Bus-4799@reddit

Could you fly as a hobby after work?

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scudrunner14@reddit

Hobby flying is dying a slow and shitty death, and I’d imagine it will get exponentially worse with the way things are looking for our future. Pretty hard to fly for fun when it’ll cost 400 plus bucks to go on a meaningful flight. May as well pay the up front charge and get paid to fly at some point

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

I live near a small airport where people rent/fly cessnas, it’s doable

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Vincent-the-great@reddit

Ur prolly like the 20th one this week

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

Well that makes me feel less crazy.

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acexprt@reddit

Do what you love. It makes getting out of bed easier. Even if that bed is a little bit smaller.

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PepperBroccoLi22@reddit

Ha, funny you asked. You’re not crazy. I majored in Com Sci, did full time internship, and figured I couldn’t imagine doing it for the rest of my life and switched. I’m finishing my CFI soon all within one year.

So about your situation, let’s say it takes 6-7 years to get into a regional at 35, that’s 30 years of aviation career. Assuming 10 years at a regional, that’s still 25 years at a legacy/major (all super conservative estimates).

I know quite a few people in Nor Cal doing a full time CS job and a regional lifer only flying premium trips.

Aviation is also the kinda job that will get old sooner or later, so I highly recommend having a passion for it. A piece of advice is to not go into more debt for it, if you’re in any. Not that it’s not worth it. It’s just you never know how the market perform.

You can try to start some flight training and keep your current job at the same time, because you should fly no more than four times a week, anyway, as a new student pilot.

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Small_Chicken1085@reddit

No. Flying planes is awesome. When you were a kid did you want to grow up and be a computer scientist? Sorry…. Maybe you did. Anyway something something don’t get into it for the money…..

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

I mean, I loved doing web design, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do for a long time. I don’t want to be rich but if I could make the same money I do now while being away from home half the time…

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gear-down-flaps-full@reddit

I’m a 48 y/o software engineer with a CS degree and have been in my career for 26 years:

Do it! 😀

AI is coming for us “knowledge workers”, but a human will always be in the cockpit for the foreseeable future.

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BackgroundConfident7@reddit

I fly with second career people all the time, they always seem happy with their decision.

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

Have you flown with anyone who pivoted from tech?

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BackgroundConfident7@reddit

Yes and everything in between!

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

That’s reassuring! I assumed most people wouldn’t, given that they require retirement at 65

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WhatsYourTale@reddit

I'm 29, had a degree in business and worked in game dev for 7ish years. Now working in home loans and saving up to start my PPL training. Odds are I'll be 35 before I can really start doing anything, but... I want to do something fun with my life, ya know? So yeah--you aren't crazy, and you're far from the only one. Follow your passions, friend

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gitbse@reddit

I would recommend maintenance. With a computer science background you would be exceptionally well suited to avionics. Much easier to get in and less grind to work your way up than pilot.

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PleaseGreaseTheL@reddit

I'm 30 lol

Most people who go into aviation are around our age. It costs like 50k-100k to get your commercial license from nothing. The idea that its teens learning to fly and becoming commercial pilots, and getting airline jobs at 22 or something, is something of a myth.

Do it if you want. Don't do it if you don't want.

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

Both the people I know had major airline jobs before the age of 25. Granted, they started regional and started flight school out the gate at 18.

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PleaseGreaseTheL@reddit

Okay well then you totally shouldn't do it

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CrystallizedKoi@reddit (OP)

What? Lol

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

I feel like I’m nuts but I’m tired of sitting at a desk. I considered being a flight attendant in addition to my main job in computer science but I know people who are pilots making bank and only work 2/3 days a week and aren’t drowning in bills. Would I be crazy to consider pursuing this career at my age after 10 years in the workforce?

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