Change in Career due to Covid redundancy

[Blinkz]

Hey folks,

As some of you may know I'm an airline pilot and have been for around 15 years, most recently with Virgin Atlantic. Covid has not been kind to anyone, but the aviation industry has been particularly hard hit and because of this I'm being made redundant. Its been an tough pill to swallow, as its all I've ever known and was my dream job for as long as I can remember.

The aviation industry as a whole is on it knees and many thousands of pilots are in a similar situation. As such there isn't, and most likely won't be any flying jobs or even aviation related jobs for a good number of years.

I now find myself in a totally unwanted position where I need to make a full on career change aged nearly 40 and with no work experience other then flying aircraft. I'm lucky that I have enough savings to pay the bills for a year, so I don't need to leap into the first thing I find.

I'm currently trying to narrow down my options on what sort of job would suit me and that I would be good at. The biggest hurdle is that with zero experience it will be an up hill struggle to even get a job at all. I have a degree in Computer Science and Management, however that was 20 years ago and I honestly can't remember anything. As I said as well I've never worked in IT so have no experience to fall back on.

I'd appreciate any hints, tips etc from anyone who has had to do something similar. At present I'm a little like a deer in the headlights trying to figure out what to do.

 

[Blinkz]

What sort of thing do you want to do?

Do you want to work towards a high flying career or run your own business?

I've been asking myself a similar thing of late. 44 and I was made redundant in February.

Although I've spent my entire career working in the corporate world, of late I've become disillusioned with that to some degree and would quite like the idea of my own business.

Thanks for the reply. Sorry to hear that you are going through the same stress!

Well I WANT to keep flying, but that's not an option. I'm hoping that in a few years, probably 3+, aviation will recover and I'll be able to return to flying. However it would be hard to return having not flown for so long, but again employers would hopefully take covid into account for the lack of currency.

In an ideal world I also like the idea of running my own business, it would be something I could continue on the side when I return to flying. Sadly I've no experience in anything to do for my own business....

As such I'm considering anything. HGV training is an option, however all the jobs I've seen advertised require experience. I do enjoy IT but at a very much hobby/amateur level and so would need to do some training before being able to even apply for jobs, but again most require experience.

 

[Blinkz]

What about a trade?

I looked at electrician courses, for £2,500ish you can get a domestic installation qualification.

When I was being quoted more than that to rewire my house, it seemed a pretty decent price for a skill that will be useful for ever.

Yea Electrician is on my list of possible choices. As you say its a trade that will always be useful, as well as in demand! Its not quite that simple as getting the basic qualification. As I understand the regs the big benefit item is being able to sign off your own work, Part P and that requires a more study and on the job training. None of which are impossible to do with a little graft and money. Plumber is also an option and has similar training requirements. Of course trades themselves have lots of options. Basic domestic stuff tends to not be where the money is, and commerical is usually more money for your time but is a lot more regulated.

For me IT is more of a draw interest wise. As I said I have a degree in CS which isn't a bad place to start. I'd need to choose a route and then do some qualifications to even get my foot in the door and just hope I can find somewhere that doesn't require experience. Deciding which part of IT interests me is another problem in itself

 

[Blinkz]

Thanks for the replies. Staying in the industry would be the sensible option but sadly as I said everything to do with aviation is totally unstable. It’s not just been pilots that are affected, it’s been pretty much everyone. Virgin has halved in size for example, BA has made 10,000 people redundant. There just aren’t any jobs available.

The RAF have indeed taken some of the unemployed civilian pilots in, however the majority of them are ex-services anyway. A lot of them quite recently as well so it’s a natural fit. In fact I’m not aware of any purely civilian pilots that have been given any jobs in the RAF.

As for the defence industry, in my experience the defence and civilian sectors are quite separate. As you say there are a quite a few jobs in defence, and quite near me in Farnborough. However as with every other job I’ve seen so far they are all wanting experience both in the role but also in the sector.

Ideally I want to try and take advantage of this situation and diversify my skills and experience (which isn’t hard as I’ve said I currently only can fly planes!) as this would be useful going forward. Being able to continue doing something on the side when I return to flying as well as if/when something else badly affects the aviation industry in the future I’ll have something to fall back on.

 

[Blinkz]

@dowie really appreciate the long and detailed post. You make some great points and I agree with most of them. Sadly my experience so far is that people outside of aviation don't really understand the skill set required to be a pilot and as such how it can be useful away from aviation. Most seem to have a relatively narrow view on what they require, most being specific experience in the field of the job. As you say pilots have many useful skills including leadership/team working skills, advanced risk assessment, multitasking, quick decision making, detailed technical and theoretical knowledge etc etc to name but a few. And yes a lot of these can be useful in other industries. The hard part is finding industries that will allow you to even interview, let alone work to show how our skills can be useful.


Yes it can be argued that some options I'm looking at are a step down professionally, but if there are vacancies now and will allow me to stretch my savings another 6 months or even to 2 years then that would be hugely beneficial. Whilst I do have savings for a year, that is literally everything I have and so can't spend a whole year studying as once I finished I'd have to start selling the house etc! Ideally I want to study for a few months and then start working. Depending on what I choose to study I'll try and get a job asap to help make my savings last as long as possible whilst studying on the side. This is what is hard to balance, needing money to support my family (we've a 7 month old) whilst trying to find another career which ideally I can do on the side when I start flying again.

However I think I will also try and raise my ambitions a little and try and find more professional options to at least apply for!

 

[Blinkz]

How far are you casting your net in the search for flying jobs?

Bush logistics in Borneo? Regional flights in China?

Will be hard with a young family to begin with, but you need to play the long game if you want to stay in the industry and avoid losing the house.

The worldwide aviation job market is in tatters. There’s aren’t any jobs going sadly. A number of adverts are looking for expressions of interest but these rarely lead to a job.

However I’m also not prepared to take my family out of the UK, especially to third world countries in Africa. This is why I’m planning on stepping away from flying temporarily and find a new career to develop.

As I mentioned above I will try and keep my options open with regards to management positions but in the mean time I’m going try and be proactive. With a CS degree I’m still leaning towards some sort of IT career.

 

[Blinkz]

Are things that bad? I subscribe to some pilots who vlog including a couple of 737 pilots and though it went quiet for a bit and one lost his job they seem to be scraping enough flying work together though one is mostly flying freight now rather than passengers which he used to do.

Pretty much all airlines either have, or are in the process of making pilots redundant. And the delay in Covid recovery makes it likely that airlines will continue to cut their schedules and so their crews.

Yes there is some flying happening, and most of that is cargo and if you are lucky enough to be on the right fleet at the right time you are safe. However for every pilot with a job there is probably at least one being made redundant.