03.31.08
It’s paying off!
Life is good. This morning the owner of the flight school told me he appreciated the work I’ve been putting in and that I’d be getting a raise beginning next pay period. I won’t say how much, but I can tell you it’ll be a noticeable amount, not an insulting, “Why did you even bother?” kind of raise. I once had a friend get a $0.25/hour raise and I told him he should’ve quit on the spot and told his boss to keep the change. My raise wasn’t like that.
Coupled with some recruitment bonuses I get for bringing in new students to our school, I figure I’m able to make about $25k-$30k/year as it stands now. If I can persuade the owner I’m worth another raise in a few months, I might actually be able to get my pay up to $35k/year or so. I think it would cap out at about that level, but even if it does, $35k/year is not shabby.
I hope this doesn’t come across as bragging. I don’t mean it like that. It’s just that I’m so excited I can actually make a fair living at teaching. Historically, CFIs have been at the bottom of the pile, living below the poverty level no matter how hard they worked.
When I asked $20/hour from a previous employer, they told me it couldn’t be done, that I was expecting too much. It wasn’t realistic. Flight instructors shouldn’t get paid that much. Screw ‘em. I do. It makes me want to photocopy my pay stub now and mail it back to that place, just to prove it’s possible to run a successful flight school and still pay instructors enough to have a decent life.
Even more satisfying than the raise though, it really impressed me that my boss is a man of his word. I’m so used to the “us against them” attitude pilots oftentimes have to take towards their employers that it’s a refreshing change to be recognized as an asset, not a liability.
When I first started working for this school, the owner told me I’d start at a certain level, but if I worked hard he promised he’d move me up in pay. He wouldn’t promise a timeline, he only said if I worked hard he’d make sure I was rewarded.
I was just thinking last night about how I needed to ask for a raise. I was beginning to think I might have gotten suckered by an empty promise that would never come true.
I was willing to accept less than ideal pay to start with in order to prove myself, but I’ve always thought I deserved more. I had been pondering the evidence I would present to my boss–how many hours I’d billed, how busy I’d gotten, how experienced I am–along with figuring out the right time to ask for the raise, and how much of a raise to ask for. Then out of nowhere, he upped my pay without me saying a word. It was a moment that made me go, “Shoot, maybe all managers aren’t sleezy, after all.”
So now I’m contemplating what it would be like to stay at this school for another year or two. I mean, really, I have a heck of a lot going for me. I set my own hours, all of my students are fantastic, the planes are well maintained and nicely equipped, and I’m living in a city surrounded by friends. It might be tough to give that up for a lower paying job with a worse schedule that I’d have to move to another city, away from my friends, to get.
I doubt I’ll keep teaching forever, but it’s days like these that make me think I might last longer than I originally planned.
I don’t know what the future holds. But it certainly looks brighter than before.
Now, since I don’t want to have yet another blog without pictures, I’ll throw one out there for you:
In the past four days I’ve solo’d two students. This was a shot of one of them on his first solo flight. I thought it looked cool.
Now I need to go hit the books again for some college classes. Geeze, I hate school. Oh well, only five more weeks until I’m out for the summer and can really crank up the flying.
Thanks for reading!