Mid Life Crisis at the age of 24!!!

[clintfiore]

Haha sorry I had to one up the 26 guy.

This is my first post here but I've been loving reading these forums for a few weeks. It really seems like a great community, despite all the pilots.

I'm a 2005 ERAU PRC Grad that's a CFI/MEI with around 600TT. I'm not your typical career pilot kinda guy that comes out of my school. In fact, I've been working in the non-profit sector contentedly for about 3 years (I'm a public speaker for an organization called Rachel's Challenge which stemmed from the Columbine shooting and teaches kids about kindness). Since I graduated school I've been working from home, falling in love, marrying and fertilizing a wife (baby due in Sept.), traveling and speaking, and flight instructing freelance. I love aviation, but I'm also an entrepreneurial minded guy passionate about business and finance.

With the news of the pregnancy has come a need for a change in my career path. My wife and I both were planning on continuing public speaking this fall, but will be unable to with the surprise new addition coming. After a bit of soul searching I've decided I want to pursue a full-time aviation job and pusue the industry at a higher level. Most entry level flying jobs (especially airlines) really don't turn me on because of low pay, poor hours, constantly being gone, and low pay. I'm looking into some of the following career paths and appreciate any insights or suggestions this community can give me:

Aircraft Sales, Marketing, Brokerage, etc... (I have an extensive sales/marketing history)
Airport Management
Non Airline flying jobs like full time instructing, US Customs and Border Patrol, or others that would let me have a good schedule and home life.
Managerial jobs at an aerospace company.

I'm open to ideas and advice, and once again it's a pleasure to meet all of you.

-Clint

[bartman]

Welcome to JC. Take my free advice for what you paid for it but I think you would succeed best at an aviation-related sales/marketing job (aircraft sales, fractional sales, charter). Every "How to succeed in sales and make a billion dollars in your first year" book suggests that if you are going to succeed in sales, sell something you are passionate about. If you have good sales skills and you are passionate about aviation, you've got most of the battle won.

Congrats on the new edition to your crew and take it to heart when everyone tells you to store up your sleep before the baby gets here. You WILL need it!!

[clintfiore]

So far I've applied to about 10 places... no interviews yet.

The top 3 things I'm interested in right now in no particular order are:

- Working at AOPA headquarters, Director of Development, ASF. Maryland
- Lockheed FSS- Pilot Briefer. Arizona
- Jeppesen- Strategic Account Manager. Colorado

I'll let you all know as things develop. Anyone have experience in these areas?

[Airport7]

I was a CFI who switched into airport management. It's not an easy path, but if it's something you're interested in I can point you in the right direction.

[bartman]

Originally Posted by Airport7

I was a CFI who switched into airport management. It's not an easy path, but if it's something you're interested in I can point you in the right direction.

What kind of background would be best for that job? Did you have Aviation Management courses prior to getting into it? I would really like to get into an aviation-related job but can't see myself going through the training->CFI->regional route at this point in my career.

[clintfiore]

Originally Posted by Airport7

I was a CFI who switched into airport management. It's not an easy path, but if it's something you're interested in I can point you in the right direction.

By all means, point. I'd like to hear how you got into it and what steps you would recommend taking. It sounds like at least one other person would like to hear about it too so you could just reply in the thread.

[Airport7]

Originally Posted by bartman

What kind of background would be best for that job? Did you have Aviation Management courses prior to getting into it? I would really like to get into an aviation-related job but can't see myself going through the training->CFI->regional route at this point in my career.

I started at ERAU Prescott as an aero science major and transferred to SIU after 2 1/2 years and I ended up getting a degree in Aviation Management. I was planning on doing the pilot thing and CFI'd for a little while along with being a ramper at SkyWest. The ramp job gave me a pretty good insight into the daily lives of the pilots there, and I got the feeling that the lifestyle wasn't really for me.

So here's how the "route" to airport management sort of works (like flying, there's a bunch of ways to get there, but this is a solid one). The entry level jobs are in airport operations, such as an operations coordinator, officer, or something like that. You can find them on www.aaae.org among other sites. I applied for every one that came up for months before I started some interviewing. Luckily, I got hired in a county department that was close to where I lived, so it was commutable. The pay isn't great, but these are typically county or city jobs, so the benefits and retirement are excellent. In addition to the operations officer duties, I was also trained as an aircraft rescue firefighter since we performed that function as well (lots of fun). After the entry-level, you can usually start applying for supervisor positions pretty quickly. With some supervisory experience, moving to an assistant manager type position is usually next and then on to Manager (or director or whatever they happen to call it). You can do quite well at larger airports even in just the operations positions, but it seems to take longer to move up the food chain in those places. At smaller airports like where I started out, the pay is lower but the opportunity for advancement seems to come quicker.

I was able to move into a manager position fairly quickly (timing and luck) and have since moved on to a very nice FAA job. I still fly for fun on the weekends and I've really enjoyed the path I chose. That's probably all a little confusing, fire away with any questions.

[slushie]

HAHA you fertilized her! HAHA. Clint, I want you to be my assistant airport director someday...

[bartman]

Originally Posted by Airport7

I started at ERAU Prescott as an aero science major and transferred to SIU after 2 1/2 years and I ended up getting a degree in Aviation Management. I was planning on doing the pilot thing and CFI'd for a little while along with being a ramper at SkyWest. The ramp job gave me a pretty good insight into the daily lives of the pilots there, and I got the feeling that the lifestyle wasn't really for me.

So here's how the "route" to airport management sort of works (like flying, there's a bunch of ways to get there, but this is a solid one). The entry level jobs are in airport operations, such as an operations coordinator, officer, or something like that. You can find them on www.aaae.org among other sites. I applied for every one that came up for months before I started some interviewing. Luckily, I got hired in a county department that was close to where I lived, so it was commutable. The pay isn't great, but these are typically county or city jobs, so the benefits and retirement are excellent. In addition to the operations officer duties, I was also trained as an aircraft rescue firefighter since we performed that function as well (lots of fun). After the entry-level, you can usually start applying for supervisor positions pretty quickly. With some supervisory experience, moving to an assistant manager type position is usually next and then on to Manager (or director or whatever they happen to call it). You can do quite well at larger airports even in just the operations positions, but it seems to take longer to move up the food chain in those places. At smaller airports like where I started out, the pay is lower but the opportunity for advancement seems to come quicker.

I was able to move into a manager position fairly quickly (timing and luck) and have since moved on to a very nice FAA job. I still fly for fun on the weekends and I've really enjoyed the path I chose. That's probably all a little confusing, fire away with any questions.

Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to post your experience for us.

[slushie]

Originally Posted by bartman

Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to post your experience for us.

Ditto.

[BillErvin]

Originally Posted by clintfiore

Non Airline flying jobs like full time instructing, US Customs and Border Patrol, or others that would let me have a good schedule and home life.
Managerial jobs at an aerospace company.

I'm open to ideas and advice, and once again it's a pleasure to meet all of you.

-Clint

Hey Clint, Customs & Border Protection Air Division is a great job. You'll need a little more time 1500 TT & more(Check Air interdiction Agent in the jobs forum) Most of it is on the southern border, some on the northern border and a training center in OKC. Living on the southern border can be difficult for wives if they have never lived there and I'm talking more Rio Grande Valley than southern AZ (I was Border Patrol in Yuma). Most of the southern border flying is in the C-182 or blackhawk/MD500 working with border patrol agents on the ground. also, being detailed out to other stations for weeks or months is a fact of life as well. On the other hand were can you make 100K flying a 182. If you have any questions PM me.

Bill