[DasLeben]

Well, I'm in the midst of a career change myself. I'm a graduate of a top aeronautical university with a B.S. in Aeronautical Science, along with commercial pilot and flight instructor certificates. From a very young age, I wanted to fly airplanes. When I got older, I decided that I would like to fly jets for a major airline, and spent four years in college working towards that goal. I took out roughly $130,000 in student loans and made it happen.

As soon as I graduated, I took a look around. I fully expected to graduate, go work as a flight instructor for a couple years, then go fly for some regional carrier. In fact, this had been my plan for years. But when I got out of school, things just didn't feel right. The aviation industry for pilots is a very volatile one, with low initial pay and terrible job security. Even senior pilots for large carriers are taking massive pay cuts, and are still subject to furlough. I love to fly, but I decided that in order to go into this industry, you had to have some other reason besides "I love to fly." What that reason is, I have no clue.

So, I started casually looking at other options, and came up with the idea to go work for the FAA. Long story short, I'm moving to Los Angeles in December to spend a year in Air Traffic Controller school. I'm making a very difficult jump, but I think it will be well worth it in the end.

Anyways, that's just my story. I can't really give you much advice, but I just wanted to point out that you're not alone not feeling satisfied with job or an industry. Good luck out there.