AVCANADA

Take Note: Happy people don't go around looking for an outlet to express their happiness. Unhappy people will tell anyone who is willing to listen about what makes them unhappy. This forum tends to be an outlet for unhappy people. This industry could definitely use some improvement and one could likely make more money in other trades, but if you are good at what you do there is always someone who will pay you more. The tools/skills that make someone a good AME also transfer over to other aspects of your employment. The AME's who can't make a good living and constantly complain about making 45K a year are usually stuck at that pay-rate for a reason. You get paid what you are worth, generally speaking.

So, in conclusion, don't take what you read on this forum from a handful of jaded people as fact, but use it as a guide to ask further questions of real people.

Ballsssssss

That's it, there's just a handful of AME's out there and they all come here. Accordingly, you should be able to go out to real people in this business and find the opinion overwhelmingly the opposite..... Give me a f$#@ing break. You loser's, even though most of you know better, still try to paint a rosy picture/blow smoke up asses to any newb, any chance you get. Telling someone to go ahead and do it, because many industries will have you afterward when you don't like it, is disgusting. Way to sell the industry, but saying anything else is just lying if you try to sweeten it, right?

What you will in fact find is that the "handful" moniker synonymous with the ones who say they are happy with everything AME, not the other way round.
I've asked a few times for one of the happy's to provide a link to a "being an ame is so awesome" site, but alas, no one steps up. If the happy demeanor is so prevalent in the AME world, where are all the websites packed with happy ame's???
they don't exist.

But I digress. Maybe they are AME's out there happy with 45G a year, I mean genuinely happy with schooling cost, tools, shiftwork, awesome 45g a year pay, lousy benefits, etc. Doesn't work out about $21 an hour??? Awesome....I know I'd do it all over again if I knew that much awesomeness was waiting for me.

I'll leave it at this, I rather be a discouraged future AME, than a longtime discouraged AME. Count yourself lucky you're not 10 years in regretting it.

To you ass blowers out there, jog on, you're pathetic.

As far as hard work and skill is concerned it will have very little effect on your compensation in this industry. Most if not all of the big industry leading company's with regard to pay and benefits have established pay scales that take into consideration only time in at that particular company. So you can be the worlds greatest AME with 20 years experience on type and if hired you get to start at level one just like the kid who just got his license yesterday. At smaller companies skill can come into play but those companies pay scales 99.9 % of the time start and top out at far less then the big boys. Promotions in this industry have everything to do with your ability to kiss ass and drink your particular company's kool-aid without question and no correlation to skill, leadership ability, people skills or experience. The latest industry wide trend is to promote the keenest newly licensed guy available as they have proven to be the most moldable and easily controlled.

Air Canada has shipped its' heavy maintenance to Costa Rica. That means apprentices that once were soaked up by big red are now competing with other apprentices for less jobs.

HA, don't be discouraged mon ami! Look outside the box and at the bigger picture of aviation itself. Just because air canada sucks doesn't meant that AME's are going the way of the dodo, there are many other sectors to work in like GA, military, helicopters and a hundred other small airlines. Hard work and attention to detail will set you apart from the rest and yes, you'll have to work in the salt mines to start but as you progress with your career things will get better. If you don't mind working up north, you can make upwards of a 100k after a few years, find yourself a nice local girl, settle down and retire to the bahamas early, only to go back to work a year and a half later because life is too good and you have nothing to complain about anymore. Good luck to you on your journey.

P.S. An E license can go a long way these days, but start with the M1 and don't waste your time/money on the EASA B.S. from bcit unless you plan on going to europe tomorrow. Most guys i meet over there want to come work in canada, the grass is greener I guess.

How about you post a link to all these 100k a year northern openings.

That kind of money may exist in the helicopter side but you need to live in a bush camp away from your family for 6 months at a time and work 18 hr days 7 days a week to get it.

Ourkid2000,

If you can't say anything intelligent...ah, never mind. It wouldn't be your first time.

AC was doing 'A' checks in China 6 years ago while laying off in Canada.

Aveos has been sending customer work to Costa Rica for several months - while layoff notices have been handed out at AC. AC is now just another customer of Aveos. The "future" is already here. These guys are talking about coming out of school two years or so from now. The process will be that much further along by then.