My friend just quit his job as a commercial airline captain to go study computer science. He started flying around the age of 16, about the time I started programming.

Airlines treat their employees like objects. The schedule is horrendous and their healthcare benefits are abysmal. The monotony of the job causes a lot of depression compounded with the fact that you’re away from family for often days or weeks at a time living in sub par hotels.

The pay is not very great either, yet execs rake in huge . Some pilots at FedEx and other carriers can make FAANG money, but it’s not the average.

An interesting perspective he also shared was you don’t grow. You kind of learn everything initially but it’s mentally boring. He’s loved CS. Seems like execs need to focus on quality of life and quality of work for these pilots.