Careers
Find yourself. Or at least find a job.
Transportation Careers
When asked what the major means of transportation was back in the day, the 2000-year-old man replied that it was “mostly fear.” According to him, “an animal would growl, and you’d go two miles in a minute.”
Fortunately for us—and perhaps unfortunately for any predators—we’ve come a long way, baby.
Today you can’t walk ten feet without bumping into a plane, train, automobile, motorcycle, bicycle, unicycle, zeppelin, segway, hot air balloon, jet pack or hoverboard. And even if you somehow do go ten feet safely, one of them is likely to bump into you.
Our world is on the move. Everybody’s always in a big hurry to get somewhere different, and until we’ve developed the sort of beaming technology that would satisfy even the most critical, hard-nosed trekkie, our desire to get from Point A to Point B in Time C-and-a-half is going to remain insatiable.
Which is where those in the transportation field come in. To be fair…that’s casting a wide net. It includes taxi drivers, who need to be able to do nothing other than operate an automobile and exhibit that they have an obvious death wish, and who pull in around $25k annually; it also includes air traffic controllers, who have one of the most stressful jobs on the planet and get compensated accordingly for it, making $125k on average.
And then…there’s everything in between. From those who directly operate various modes of transportation, such as commercial airline pilots, bus drivers and material moving machine operators…to those involved in the field in any other way whatsoever—flight attendants, hand laborers, switchyard workers, etc., the transportation industry has got some legs on it. Or…wheels, or whatever.
However, depending on what type of career you choose to go after, the lifestyle can be a bit tough. Truck drivers pretty much live on the road. Three in the morning, a long stretch of highway, not another soul in sight, and going on four hours of sleep…you’d better be stockpiling 5-Hour Energy, or else be willing to pick up a hitchhiker who will sing show tunes to you to keep you awake. Pilots can be away from their families—if they even have time to start families in the first place—for weeks at a time. And we already mentioned the emotional strain of being an air traffic controller. You try spending all day, every day attempting to keep planes full of people from crashing into each other and see how cheery and upbeat you feel.
So, transportation has its ups and downs. As well as its backwards and forwards. But if you’re ready to spread your wings, there’s plenty of room for you to really fly.
Assuming some air traffic controller hasn’t made a boo-boo. http://breakingbad.wikia.com/wiki/Donald_Margolis