In my experience, it can be very rewarding but also very difficult if you are doing it right. It’s probably a lot easier if you decide to be one of those dirtbag management stooge types, but trying to balance the needs of the company, the (sometimes unrealistic) demands of upper management/owners, and doing right by your employees will have you pulled in all different directions and can be quite stressful. Guarantee you’ll also run into scenarios you never would have imagined of “WHAT was employee soandso thinking!?!?”.
Dirtbag is my middle name. I'm all about screwing over the average Joe just trying to get by. I mean, this is Part 135, amirite?!?
Haha...but for real, I do know exactly what you are talking about. I've seen it. I've even joked before how the reason I stay out of management is because I'd probably actually make everyone hate me. I'd crack down on pilots spending money on stupid stuff with their expense accounts, so they'd hate me, and I'd cost the company money by insisting on policies that ultimately cancel trips, so management would hate me. I guess I can't use that joke anymore!
The reason I think I'll be able to deal with it is because of the same philosophy I have in professional flying...make sure to care, but not too much. Some pilots are out here losing their minds if the fuel truck is not showing up quick enough or the catering is missing. Not me. I do the best I can to make it a quick turn, keep the customers happy, or whatever, but if things go wrong, that's life. I tried.
One thing that I always enjoyed as DM, which you’ll get to do a little as DO as well, was selling the owners/accountants on cool airplane • and getting to spend a bunch of their money on stuff that makes the operation run better.
Yes, seen this too. Our Excel fleet wouldn't be transitioning to G5000 avionics if it weren't largely for our previous DO's work.
What is your long term strategy with this gig? Do you think you want to retire doing something like this? Are you planning to do this a few years and use the résumé dressing to get something bigger and better? Give it a few years and see from there? This is just my experience, but it seems like 135 management types, especially if they don’t become management stooges, have about a 3-5 year lifespan in the job and if you have sort of a next step plan in place it might help you make a better career choice when you just can’t do it anymore. Of course, maybe your ownership/upper management is one of the unicorns where you will be happy doing it long term in which case good on ya. In any case, like I said, good luck, and based on what I know of you from here I’m sure you’ll do a solid job.
Thanks. I definitely gave this angle thought even before applying, as I've seen the same phenomenon of burnout you're talking about.
It helps that I've never had a great plan for my life. I mean it. I've kind of drifted along in my career doing a lot of unconventional stuff and enjoying it. I might be super weird, or lucky, or a bit of both. I flight instructed far longer than most people. At one point I walked away from professional flying and did aircraft sales work for several years. Then when pay/schedules started improving for pilots, decided to jump back in and fly jets for my current company. Really enjoyed the ride here. Oftentimes people would ask what my plan is, because they can tell I've been doing this 135 stuff longer than most, and I half jokingly say, "I dunno, I'll probably ride this bus until the wheels fall off then figure out what else to do with my life."
I see a few potential paths for myself.
1) Legitimately enjoy the work and do it indefinitely.
2) Grow the company enough in the next five years for the whole operation to get bought out. If this happens, I'll be compensated at a level that would make retirement a real possibility, or at least make work optional, at which point who knows what direction I might go.
3) Get burned out and go back to being a line pilot. It's not like I'm miserable here as a pilot.
4) Get burned out and go fly somewhere else.
5) Get burned out and walk away from flying. I've done it once, I could do it again!
I have no idea which path will happen. Obviously #1 or #2 would be my preference, but I'd be ok with any of them.
