what kind of job opps?
All kinds. Too many to list, I mean look at all the kinds of planes there are, from firefighting, to air freighters, to airliners, to military a/c. Every type of plane has to have pilots, so there are numerous fields in aviation that you could go into. It depends on your personality as to which type of flying you would enjoy the most however. The relaxed rules and low level flying of cropdusting might appeal to some people, whereas the high discipline, and intensity of military flying appeal to others. If you want the big bucks you need to think either airlines, or air freight transport. I think the last time I checked the pilots that made the most money were widebody captains for Fed-Ex. They pull down something like $350,000/year. Obviously it takes many years (20+)and many flight hours to work into something like that. The average salary for Delta airline pilots is around 200 grand now, but again you have to work your way into it. If you dont have much money to start with, probably the best way to work your way into aviation is military flying. It takes years, since you have to be a commissioned officer first (notable exception: Army helicoptor pilots are warrant officers) which means that you must have a college degree. Then its pretty competitive to get pilot slots in the military also. The flight physicals eliminate a lot of people, as they are very rigerous, even more so than the already stringent civilian commercial standards. It takes a lot of committment and dedication to succeed as a military aviator but the reward is great. They teach you to fly, then pay you to fly and you get to fly the coolest planes. There is a 10 year commitment to the USAF if you become a pilot, and I think for the USN its 8 yrs. The upside to that is that its job security if you want to look at it that way. If you just want to work your way up the civilian side of the ladder you can go to college and major in professional aviation, especially at a university that specializes in that sort of thing like Embry-Riddle University. The problem with this is its very expensive (at the university I went to, Louisiana Tech, it cost like 18 grand over what it would cost to get any other degree). You can offset this some by getting student loans that they give for that purpose, and by becoming a certified flight instructor and teaching others. CFIs dont usually make much money but it helps you build hours, and after all you are getting paid to fly. Sure beats working for a living!
Airlines have recruited pro. av. majors from universities pretty heavily in recent years, although recent events and the resulting slump in the airline industry may change that somewhat. Those are pretty much the entry levels into aviation as a career usually, either the military, or college, or working as a CFI, or some combination of the above. The key to getting any job in the civilian aviation community is hours, ratings, and certifications. You just have to build these as quickly as you can afford them, unless of course you go the military route in which case its all free. Once in, some other possible aviation career choices: corporate pilot, bush pilot, charter pilot, aerial spraying, flying jump planes, there are even these dogfight schools that have sprung up all over the country where people pay to come play fighter pilot for a day. Most of your bigger police departments hire pilots too, fixed and rotary wing both. All these jobs need pilots, but like I said most of them have some set minimum level of experience. One of the best sites to go to on the Internet for a lot of information is the FAA's own website:
www.faa.gov They answer a lot of common questions and have a lot of good info on their site.
I am personally going the miltary route. I also majored in CIS and likewise decided that working in that field as a career wasnt for me. Ever since I was a kid I always wanted to fly fighters, so I joined the USAF via the ROTC route from college. I ended up not getting a pilot slot due to a sudden critical shortage of navigators that came up just as I categorized. This resulted in myself and numerous other members of my class getting categorized as navs. That isnt so bad though, since the program Im in (strike nav) is the lead-in for backseater in either a F-15E or the B-1. In the F-15E at least, you are kinda like a copilot since you have dual controls and will get stick time. Also I intend to apply for an active duty pilot slot later on which I will then have a good chance of getting. Currently I have gotten about 12+ hours of stick time in the T-34 which is the basic trainer here in addition to a very small amount of civilian time that I already have.
