This could Seriously Hurt the Aviation Industry!

Use code "mentournow" and the link below to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan: incogni.com/mentournow

So far every single "shortage" a company complained about can be summed up to "we don't want to pay them market rate"...

There's never a shortage of workers, only a shortage of workers willing to work for low pay.

900€ per month for an engineer?? I made ~1600€ per month delivering groceries on a bicycle in Germany and that wasn't even a full time job

Its worse. Retired Engineering Manager here. They pay PMPs, CPAs, CEOs, CFOs, Analysts, and virtually everyone else huge sums of money, and spit on the Engineers. I've seen it. The outright contempt I've seen in the management meetings for engineers and technical people is beyond belief. After they demanded I cut salaries 40%, I was ready to go. Of course, they were doing that in secret...

From my long experience, people will stick with a hard, crappy job as long as the money is right and the company takes care of them.

20 years as an AME. 13 years at the countries second largest airline. Certified on all of their aircraft types. 13 years of straight night shift while being on call during the day. Moved my family 4 times in those 13 years for the company. No raises for the last 6 years. They asked me to move a 5th time, take a 40% pay cut, and go to the countries highest cost of living city. I quit and within 1 year was making more money in a different industry…working day shift.

As an A&P Mechanic for 48 years, now retired, all I can say is anybody considering going in to the Aircraft Industry would have to be out of their mind.

As a senior engineer with only a few years before retirement I have made some observations. I’ve also worked as a mechanic and a pilot at various times over a long career. One of the toughest things to maintain is morale, and it’s probably the most important factor in quality. When morale goes down, quality goes down. When quality goes down, regulation goes up. When regulation goes up, morale goes down. This results in a vicious cycle. I see it in my own job. Esprit de corps (morale) is the most important factor in the hyper-competitive field that aviation has become, yet upper management is blind to it, and views cost as the principal factor. Morale is the only thing that can cultivate the mutual trust that is critical to success in aviation.

Boeing offered me $18 per hour as an f-18 flight line mechanic. I was an avionics guy in the USAF. Another aircraft company was offering $28 I took an electrician job in the steel industry starting around $40 an hour. Aviation industry pays peanuts

Funny how executives pay rises and high pay are justified by them as “we need to pay the best to have the best managers” but that ideology doesn’t translate down the line to the workers…

One of the problems in common with a lot of scientific/technical jobs is that there tends to be a limit on career and job progress. You may be a highly skilled and hard to replace person, but there are managers, administrators and even human resources people (with far fewer skills) in most companies who are earning far more. And the only way to get on is to give up on your technical career and go into management. Sitting through all those boring meetings and driving an office chair simply pays better.

As a US CEO my solution to the shortage of technical staff is simple: get the ones remaining to work 73 hours per day. The Excel model I used to arrive at this brilliant strategy can't be argued with, and the improvement in our bottom line means I'll get another fabulous bonus again this year. So it's a win-win all round!

As an aircraft engineer, this is spot on. I have almost 20 years of experience and love what I do. But if I had to start again, fuck that.

“Huh, our retention sucks, I wonder why?” “How much do you pay them?” “About half as much as they spend on rent every month.” “Yeah, I dunno, it’s a mystery.”

A friend told me: "don't tell my mother I'm a Boeing engineer, she thinks I'm a stripper. I don't want to break her heart."

Licensed mechanic here of 37 years in the industry. I wouldn’t recommend my son to do this job. This industry is a SLOW career progression industry. It takes a solid 10 years to earn your salt in experience, and you never stop learning. We can and do take a lot of crap to do this job. The shift work can be downright painful, the ongoing regulations you have to adhere to in one hand with operational pressures of company management asking ‘Why isn’t it serviceable yet?’ In the other hand. Working outside in woeful conditions, etc all take their toll. Company policy tells you of how you should work to the highest standards in theory, but then have you jumping from one plane to another fixing defects without adequate breaks is a recipe for mistakes. We should be on a ton more money for what we have to deal with and day by day things are getting worse. Nope. I told my son to become an electrician.

I loved Peter saying: JUST PAY THEM MORE MONEY! Easy solution... But corporations always being corporations, always looking for profits first for their shareholders

A&P no longer in the industry here. Not only do A&P mechanics make less than a car mechanic, we literally risk going to jail if we make a mistake. Not a good environment.

As an AMT, just want to say thank you Peter. Having a voice like yours in support of us mechanics/engineers means a lot. I have a deep passion for aviation, and I love what I do. But it is so taxing and draining with these companies constantly wanting more and more productivity and output, but less and less pay and with bare minimum benefits. It's discouraging having such love for the industry, while feeling like we are constantly overlooked and borderline taken advantage of by the senior learship of these companies. You're encouragement and support gives me hope though and reassurance that I love what I'm doing and at least someone notices all the hard work and commitment we give. 🙏🙏