Hi Everyone,
It has been a struggle finding the right career and I was wondering if I can turn to this community for some guidance. I am still weighing my options and recently I found out that airline pilots has made it to #3 on Forbes "10 most stressful jobs" list.
There is overlap on things discussed in other forums but it looks like most of the stress is not from flying? I want reach out to hear your thoughts and opinions from this group.
Was the stress worth it?
Hope to hear from you.
Susan,
People are different and are stressed out by different things. I’ve read that statement about airline pilot being stressful before and I always smile when I do. I’ve got a neat Galaxy watch that measures my heartrate and stress levels and aside from when I’m sleeping, I’m apparently most relaxed when I’m in the cockpit. It’s my “happy place”. Obviously there are times when something goes “ding” but if you’re confident in your training and abilities it’s not an issue.
As for the other parts of the job that cause stress again that’s up to the individual. I fly with alot of pilots who go nuts when there are delays or reassignments. It’s part of the job but there’s literally nothing you can do about it. If thinks like that stress you out then I guess the job can be stressful and it might be something to consider. For me it’s not.
Adam
Susan,
Funny, but I do not find the job stressful at all. There are certainly aspects of it that cause more work than others, but I actually enjoy dealing with bad weather, maintenance issues, etc. After 15 years of flying, it has just become my norm and I enjoy coming to work.
I would find sitting behind a desk to be incredibly stressful.
Chris
Susan,
First of all, Forbes did not conduct the survey. CareerCast did. CareerCast does the survey every year. CareerCast admits on their own website that the survey conducted was unscientific. Here’s why. They measure “stress” based on the following 11 factors:
It’s no wonder airline pilot made it to the top 10 list! Airline pilots deal with all of these factors on a daily basis, but that doesn’t mean pilots are stressed when encountered with these factors. We’re trained to handle these situations. This survey is garbage. This isn’t what makes the workplace stressful. What makes work stressful are things like lack of autonomy, unclear expectations, conflicting demands, constant interruptions, lack of feedback, “gotcha” culture, lack of trust in management, etc.
Personally, I am not stressed at work and my colleagues don’t appear to be either. Occasionally an event will happen that spikes our adrenaline, but for the most part the job is not stressful.
Tory
Am I the only one that looked closely at the photo and can’t understand why it looks like the F.O. is turning around, the Capt. is writing something, that the gear is down and in the locked position…and lastly, they’re over what looks like New York City…? This photo alone has me stressed.
This article also seems outdated as I see 2017…
I definitely did focus on the photo, but mostly what was outside of the window. It’s partially blocked by the window center line, but the building in the middle is clearly the Empire State Building and the plane is headed straight for it, literally seconds from impact. 
@SusanThai…Publishers publish articles to make money so they’ll make things up [sometimes]. A good idea is if you’re looking for research or anything along those lines, while searching through lets say Google, click tools (under your search input) and where it shows time, change that to within a year - and you’ll find more recent articles. Also take in consideration the source of information, are these sites I posted below credible, is it factual, opinion, just fake…its up to you to decipher that, but also a lot of time you have to distinguish what you believe is factual and opinion. The “Most Stressful Jobs” is opinion-based, not everyone feels stressed when they’re at work (like mentioned above by mentors^).
I also included below the US News & World Report, an article from Business News Daily, which mentions Airline Pilot, but why doesn’t the US News article have Airline Pilot? It’s because it’s opinion-based and the data that they received from their population didn’t pertain to any pilots.
Brady,
Thank you for your insights into this.
Chris