Why You Should Become an Aircraft Mechanic

There has never been a better time to start an aviation maintenance career. Already an AMT? Even better! You're perfectly positioned to take advantage of one of the best career opportunities in an exciting technical sector, with high demand, stability, and potential for growth.

It's no secret that much of the blue collar workforce is aging out of the job market. Coined "the silver tsunami", Baby Boomers are rapidly retiring from aviation maintenance careers, leaving a manpower vacuum behind, and worse yet, taking their experience with them. MRO's, OEM's, and airlines are scrambling to fill their vacancies, and struggling to attract candidates.

For Millennials and Zoomers, four-year college degrees and white collar desk jobs were established as the benchmark of success at a young age. We were given the impression that our livelihoods would depend upon a $100,000 piece of paper and years of our young-adulthoods spent in a classroom. And now, the job market is flooded with indebted, overqualified professionals, who, no doubt, are very well educated in who-knows-what, fighting for crumbs in an oversaturated, competitive market, soon to be replaced by AI. A grim outlook, indeed!

To wit, the solution to both of these problems is apparent. Aviation businesses are desperate for driven talent, and the workforce is ripe to fill these roles. Basic economics plays to maintainers' benefit, where the supply of qualified candidates is no match for the massive demand of the industry. Businesses have to compete for the talent in the market. The result? Rapidly rising wages, often higher than those of college graduates, better benefits, and job security.

But wait, there's more. Those Boomers going out to pasture? The vacancies they are creating are in supervisory and management positions as well. Upward mobility for aircraft mechanics, avionics technicians, and NDT specialists exists throughout the industry, and all you have to do is apply.

There is no better guarantee of continued employment than requirement by law. As long as commercial aviation exists, so will the need for aircraft mechanics. The FAA requires that aircraft are maintained to a standard of airworthiness to continue to legally fly, and the business of air travel demands airworthy planes.

Whether you're a high school kid trying to find your path, an entry level mechanic looking to establish yourself in the exciting world of aviation maintenance, an experienced professional seeking greener pastures, or a victim of the college machine making a career change; aircraft maintenance is a proposition too compelling to ignore.