What's the career outlook for earning A&P cert?

Been kicking this around. My only personal experience in aviation was when I did flight refueling & some fleet work/detailing for a FBO some yrs ago (that biz went under). There's a local CC in my area that offers A&P training for FAA cert, & I'm curious about the potential job outlook in this field for av mechanic works. Boeing & the aviation establishment in the area is solid, but from my experience in other fields, that doesn't necessarily correlate with employment opportunity.

A&P guys/gals please chime in.

Depends where you live. In CT area your looking at starting pay 17-18 per hour

I live near Tinker AFB, and from what I understand certified mechanics are in pretty high demand. I volunteer a couple of days a week at the local Vo Tech aviation center in their A&P program, helping high school seniors involved in the program. The officials at the aviation center are telling us well over 90% of their graduates are hired at Tinker.

The career outlook looks good in my opinion. There are quite a few avenues to pursue with an A&P( military, general aviation, corporate, commercial and UAV's). The one down side to working in aviation is that people are not willing to retire anytime soon due to no pensions, retirement or medical. The first 600 people on the seniority list at work (Delta) have 30 plus years with the company. There will be another and then another retirement package coming out to entice some of these people but the incentive just isn't worth it to most people. And one other thing, we are seeing more and more contractors filling the gap where regular full-time employees should be.

Granted, this is just one company but thought it was necessary to share because times are changing where I work. A good place to gain experience with an A&P would be an MRO (repair facility) such as TIMCO, Mobile Aerospace or San Antonio Aerospace. These companies hire anyone with a heartbeat and reading, writing and understanding the English language is a plus.

Here are a couple of websites that I look at because you just never know:

http://jsfirm.com/

http://www.aviationemployment.com/

I hear you.

I made the mistake of going into nuc-med (medical imaging modality), figuring that a licensed profession was a solid career path, & at the time I was researching the field, it did look pretty good, with a 'generational turnover' of techs being in the offing. Unfortunately, the federal gov't practice of handing out ed. loans like free cheese resulted in a proliferation of schools that has glutted the ~20K nuc-med national job market (This phenomenon has occurred for a number of other fields, but that's a subject for another thread). At the same time, the accreditation orgs that are (or were) supposed to be "representing" the profession basically sat by & took no action to intercede & try to stem this (as the AMA does WRT MD's). Top it off with the economic crash that occurred right before I graduated, & I pretty much had a fork stuck in me even before I got my license in '09.

In short, I don't want to re-tread that experience.

Boeing is on an upswing here with orders, etc., & the financial spin-off from this is a positive, but since it's aviation, the cyclical nature of the biz. has me rather hesitant. While flying rotory would be my dream, the prospect of finding gainful employ seems prohibitive, & I've heard time & again that it's better to already have a career before pursuing one in flight. I'm wondering if an A&P would provide more immediate, marketable skill set, & then perhaps flight school could be an on-the-side option. I enjoyed the experience of working on the tarmac back when I did refueling in college, & the A&P work looked like a solid gig, but then the co. eventually went under (In a twist of irony, an A&P school setup shop there).

Be prepared to move. The good jobs are usually not where you live.

There are a lot of regional airlines that hire right out of school. They don't pay well, but they can help you get experience and get into that better paying job a few years later.

I've heard that this is the case, although W-WA has a fairly strong aviation industry around where I reside now.

Take a look at Boeing, not sure about it currently but for a long time they had jobs posted that you needed an A&P for. Mainly up in Everett.

This.

And as I believe was mentioned above, many businesses are going to a good percentage of their workforce being supplied by contractors.

With the economy being in the condition that it is, it's easier for an organization to regulate the employees required to operate and do business, when a good percentage of those employees are hired on a contractual basis.

If you like to travel there are good jobs. The contractors make the most money but no benifits. The best paying jobs are overseas on one or two year contracts. Big airlines don't hire off the street much and there are alot of layoffs with them and with boeing. Boeing is allways picking up and slowing down. The bottom line is yes there is good money to be made if you are willing to chase it. If you are tied to one spot or have a family then it can be hard. I work for a MRO that works for the airlines like soutwest delta and frighters like UPS and I can tell you that I have been here for about 7 years and I make around $22 an hour (after 2 promotions) and contractors fresh off the street with no A&P are makeing $30 and hour. In case you were wondering NO you do not need an A&P to do the job but it can help. I have one and it allowed me to work as a inspector for my company which is one of the only spots that a A&P is 100% required. Its a up and down industry so be careful before you jump in.

+1 about the overseas jobs, there is company here in Afghanistan AAR Corp, that is pay 18K a month but the living conditions suck. They are the only company out here manned aviation wise that require an A&P. All the other ones will take military experience over an A&P.

I'm not sure if you mean't to say exactly what you typed, but I highly disagree with this. If you wanna fly something, the time to start is yesterday. What's the point of dithering about with two half-assed careers? Aviation can be a long road to a cushy gig, and there will be unexpected twists and setbacks. Start down the road, and get the poverty years, moves, and the first few furloughs and bankruptcies out of the way as early as possible in life, when there's less family, comittment, and static inertia in your life. Total commitment is what you have to have to take the steps to get in position for the good jobs. The best time to start a flying career is 16. Every year after that means a diminished return on your investment, ad possible encumberments that will negatively effect your ability to compete. If you want to wrench, start wrenching. If you want to fly, start flying.

Much of the sentiment I spoke of has been expressed/echoed here. Try this: go start a thread stating something to the effect that a person doesn't really need to have a good paying job in place before pursuing a flight career, & see what kind of responses you get. My hunch is that most responses would opine that to be bad advice. The risks & financial failure rate are high.

Heli's would be my choice, but I can't afford the cash it would take to get enough hrs, & FT gigs are few & far between, esp. when the "magic" 1K hrs requirement to land decent pay costs ~$400/hr to get there. How many freshly-licensed heli pilots get jobs out of flight school training? I'm not pouring over with cash that way, & I suspect the market - for both fixed & rotor - is already fairly saturated. But if I were close to 16 I'd take you up on the offer. Unfortunately, I'm past that point, & I never had enough $$$ to afford flight school, plus I don't have 20/20, so the .mil option was always off the table for me.

If A&P is doable & will pay, then the odds of a reasonable ROI make it a more sound option.

Copyright © 1996 - 2013 :: AR15.Com LLC :: All Rights Reserved.
Any use of this content without express written consent is prohibited.