In this article let’s take a look at all the advantages and disadvantages of pros and cons of being a pilot to understand whether it is a good career and worth it or is it a stressful job, or not safe job.
This is the most comprehensive article you can find online on this topic so I would recommend you to bookmark and share the article and read it till then the end to understand whether you should choose pilot as a career option.
So without any delay let’s dive right in.
Table of Contents
Is being a pilot worth it, good career or not?
Yes, being a pilot is definitely worth it and a good career Just that you should be interested and passionate about flying aeroplanes.
There are many benefits of being a pilot such as you will have high salaries, lots of perks, high demand, travel new places meet new people, exciting and adventurous life, job satisfaction, stay in expensive 5 star hotels, be a role model for many people, lots of job opportunities and many more.
Just like any other career option there are also many disadvantages with being a pilot like high workload and job stress, expensive education and others to name a few.
Now let’s take a look at all the advantages and disadvantages of being a pilot in detail to understand if it is a good career or not.
Advantages and disadvantages of being a pilot
Advantages of being a pilot
Salary & perks
One of the main advantages of being a pilot is that you will have high salary which is quite obvious one because being a pilot is one of the most lucrative and highly paid jobs in the world.
As a matter of fact the average salary of a pilot in America is around $50,000, there are various companies which pay more than $300000 for pilots annually which is really huge money and if you consider the situation in India then the average salary is around 20 lakh rupees per annum whereas top pilots make around 80 to 90 lakh rupees and also sometimes one crore per annum which is quite amazing as the salary depends upon the experience and the company working for.
One of the main reasons why pilots enjoy high salary is because of their job, airplanes have become an important method of transportation for many people across the world, and because there is a huge demand, and being a pilot is also very stressful job which we will later talk about in the article, there is huge demand so the salaries are also so huge.
And apart from getting high salaries the pilots also enjoy variety of perks such as, travel discount for family and friends, pension after retirement, health and medical insurance, life insurance, paid vacation, stay in hotels for free, expenses of food and travel are covered, holidays and many more.
High demand
Another advantage is that there is a huge demand for pilots in the world.
According to BLS, 13% is the growth rate of aviation industry and demand for pilots between 2020 to 2030 which is more than average and approximately 15,000 jobs will be created in the industry every year in the next decade.
This is in America and You will find a similar picture if you take a look at the data in India, every year approximately 500 students graduate and become pilot whereas the need is around 1000 to 1500.
So it clearly shows that there is a huge demand and supply gap for a pilots in India which means it is a very lucrative and highly demanded job which you can consider.
And the demand of pilots is growing as the aviation industry is growing worldwide because the price of ticket for aeroplanes is getting reduced and becoming more affordable for many people of middle class, and of course aeroplanes are more faster way of transportation and
also very safe as compared to road, more people are preferring to travel in aeroplane as a matter of fact the aviation industry in India is growing by 25% every year, India has the third largest domestic aviation industry in the world and aviation industry is one of the largest and fastest growing industries in India and also in the world.
So all this data might help you to understand that there is a huge demand for pilots in the coming years.
Travel various places
Another advantage of being a pilot is that you can travel to various places.
This actually might not sound very amazing but it is one of the main reasons why many people choose this career option over others.
As I mentioned earlier that being a pilot you will get discounts and lower prices to travel in aeroplanes worldwide and also get family discounts for air travel, and also you will be getting paid leaves and vacation which you can use to travel various places in the world along with your family and friends.
And if you are on the job then as your experience grows you can fly international planes and since there will be a gap between when the plane lands and takes off which will depend upon the flight schedule, you can stay in amazing 5 star hotels for free, enjoy amazing foods and also travel to various places in the foreign land,
You can do a lot of shopping out there, get new ideas for career growth, meet new people get new experiences and understand the culture out there, make amazing memories which will stay till the last moment of your life.
All of this are amazing benefits you can get after being a pilot.
Exciting and adventurous life
Another advantage is that the career of a pilot is very exciting and adventurous life because You will be flying an aeroplane in the sky, everyday will be a new challenge and also will be exciting and adventurous for you, You will meet new people, visit various different places instead of just sitting in a office,
You will be working with a team and a co-pilot, You will have some of the best views of the world in the cockpit of the plane, being able to communicate with various types of people in the flight and in the foreign land, get a lot of respect and admiration, You will be role model for many kids who dream of flying aeroplanes in future.
All of these are amazing benefits of being a pilot.
No work from home
Another advantage of being a pilot is that you will have the ability to keep the work at work itself and not bring the work to home.
Nowadays if you look at various jobs like software jobs, people not just do your work in their office but also get some pending work to do in their home also, but this is not the case with being a pilot.
Your job of a pilot is to fly aeroplanes and make safe landings and transport people from one place to another, do all the safety procedures, all of the work will be restricted and confined to airport only.
And when you are back home you will have all the time to spend with parents family and friends, You do not have to worry about some pending work to do on your computer, there is no work from home for pilots whatsoever, and this in my opinion is one of the most underrated advantages of being a pilot.
Automation is working in favour
Another advantage of being a pilot is that the automation and artificial intelligence is actually working in favour of the pilots in many cases even though we see that artificial intelligence are replacing millions of jobs in other fields.
There is something called as autopilot mode which most of the pilots select after taking off and reaching a certain altitude in sky, pilots select the direction and altitude and get the plane on autopilot which means the plane will fly on itself using the software and this will reduce a lot of workload and reduce human errors most of the time.
And this is very most of the people get curious that the pilots will be paid a lot of money just for sitting in the cockpit which is really great but obviously sometimes the autopilot mode might do more harm than good and cause accidents.
Various companies & job opportunities
Another advantage is that you can have various job opportunities and work for many companies as a pilot because as I mentioned earlier this they are in huge demand at present because the aviation industry is growing a lot faster than expected.
For example if you are a pilot in America then you can work for various companies like Boeing Lockheed Martin American airlines delta airlines saffran United airlines Alaska airlines and many more and you can have many companies in India as well like Air India Indigo go airlines Deccan airlines and many more.
And apart from this you can have job opportunities like You can fly private jets for businessman, You can become flight instructor, You can start your own flight training school as a business and also train students who want to become pilot, You can get into Air force of the defense forces, You can fly small or heavy aeroplanes, etc are a few opportunities you will get after being a pilot.
Job satisfaction and happiness
Another advantage is that you can have high job satisfaction and happiness of being a pilot.
At the end of the day if you are not happy, passionate and fulfilled with what you are doing then it will be a very bad career choice for you irrespective of how much money you make.
And being a pilot will help you have a lot of job satisfaction and happiness because you will be adding immense value in other people’s life and make their life better, by safely and quickly transporting them from one place to another, you can do thingd like rescuing people from war prone countries, importing and exporting important goods to needy people in countries, etc.
And you will get happiness and job satisfaction when you add some value to other people’s life and make their life better and being a pilot will help you get a lot of job satisfaction in this regard, many pilots rate 3.8 out of 5 stars in their job satisfaction and happiness in survey.
These are all the advantages of being a pilot.
Disadvantages of being a pilot
Huge responsibility & stress
One of the main disadvantages is that it is very high stress job.
This is because there is a zero margin for error for the pilots as it is found that pilots human errors and mistakes are one of the main reasons for many aeroplane accidents worldwide and if anything in the aeroplane goes wrong due to the mistake of the pilot it will directly risk the life of the passengers who are on board of the aeroplane.
Because of this the pilot has to go through many safety checks before flying the plane and after landing the plane on the ground to make sure all the things are working fine and there is no problem with aeroplane like in the physical condition and there are no mechanical errors.
Because of this pilot’s work around 80 hours every month in flying and more than 100 hours checking things like weather condition and condition of the plane etc to make sure everything is working fine.
And believe it or not being a pilot is one of the highly stressful job in the world, because they have a huge responsibility of transporting the people or goods safely to the destination, and there are various factors that are outside the control of the pilot which can cause disasters like weather condition and mechanical errors in the plane, runway condition etc
Fitness is mandatory
Another important thing about being a pilot is that fitness both mental and physical is very important if you want to continue flying the planes.
We all know doing exercise is very important for our health because it will reduce the blood pressure, It will keep diseases away, but fitness is actually not mandatory in many career options unlike in aviation industry.
There will be several health checkups you will have to go through & clear both mental and physical to continue flying the planes.
Mental and physical fitness is very important for the pilots because it will help them deal with the stress and anxiety that they get from the job, and also sit in the cockpit for long period of time without issues, stay active and calm their mind, work on the cognitive ability, work on this brain and keep the memory sharp, all of these things are very important for pilot.
It is important to know that pilot is actually the captain of the aeroplane and in panic situations sometimes pilot not only have to calm himself and take right decisions but also control the nerves and try to calm the passengers and the crew stuff like air hostess, & others so to do this pilots have to be fit both mental and physically.
So, As long as you are fit, you will work as a pilot and the moment your fitness gets dropped and you fail in the health checkups tests, Which are conducted regularly, You will not be working as a pilot anymore because your fitness decides whether you will be working or not.
This is both an advantage and disadvantage for you.
High risk of losing job in recessions
Another disadvantage of being a pilot is that the career is very prone to recessions and you can lose your job.
Just take a look at the example of covid pandemic, and because of this aviation industry was one of the first industries in the world which were heavily impacted by the pandemic which resulted in hundreds and thousands of people have lost the job due to the pandemic as people stopped travelling to places in aeroplane.
And running an aeroplane business is also not very easy game, there are many aviation companies to charge in losses but still running the business and if there is any recession then this businesses will get immediately shut down causing thousands of people in the aviation industry lose their job.
Tough & expensive to become one
Another disadvantage of being a pilot is that it is very tough to become one.
There are two things which I’m pointing to like,
- It is obviously very expensive to become an aeroplane pilot
- It is also very tough and time consuming to become a pilot
Now lets talk about the expenses of education first, according to various reports, It will cost you around 45 lakh rupees to become a pilot in India similarly around $90,000 to become a pilot in America.
Flight training is actually very expensive because you will have to fly small planes to get the experience and also the licence to fly, and after becoming a pilot you still have to regularly learn and update yourself with the skills.
Similarly it will take around 3 or 4 years to become a pilot, so not only it is very expensive but also very time consuming process to become a pilot which is why still there is a lot of demand for pilots because the competition is compared to other career paths is less in this.
Stay away from family & irregular working hours
Another disadvantage of being a pilot is that you can stay away from your family especially in the important moments of your life and family, especially if you have children.
You can miss some important moments of your children life like leaving them to the school, celebrating their birthdays, being present with them physically during hard times, celebrating festivals with them, and other important moments of society like festivals and functions because there’s no fix timings for pilots.
Because of this the pilots can miss important memories that they can have with their children and family due to their busy lifestyle and irregular working hours, This can also impact your mental health and sleeping patterns because they will be travelling to various places, you can get travel fatigue, and this will in return increase the stress levels.
These are all the advantages and disadvantages of being a pilot
With that said let’s conclude the article.
Conclusion
These are all the advantages and disadvantages of being a pilot.
Do let me know what are your thoughts about being a pilot as a career option in the comment section below.
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