advice for wanna-be airline pilots

Great advice from Sam at Blogging at FL250. Coming from a daughter of an airline pilot, he is much wiser than his 25 years. And he takes great photos.

Want to get a major airline pilot steamed? Tell him: "You have the best job! I'd do anything to do what you do!" Why does that upset him? It's not that he hates his job - in another context, many would admit that they enjoy it and indeed would rather do nothing else. No - by openly coveting his job and proclaiming in the rosiest terms how great it is, he feels you are discounting how long and hard he worked to get there, you're completely ignoring the sacrifices he makes in being away from his family, you're forgetting the 9 hour overnights and 15 hour duty days and broken airplanes and flow delays and irritable flight attendants. You're glossing over the unease he feels as paycuts loom and furloughs creep ever closer to his seniority number. You're essentially denying that this fellow works for a living, a charge that airline pilots have always been sensitive to.