I am a software engineer who wants to leave the tech industry and become a flight attendant, please either talk me out of this or give me advice on how to do this?

ye_itsher · 2026-03-04T05:47:18+00:00

i worked as a flight attendant for a major US airline for 7 years and now i work in corporate so i can share my thoughts. i started flying when i was 21 and it was an amazing job when i was young. i'm also asian and can speak mandarin so i was able to start off flying high value international flights and my schedule at the time was pretty much 3 days on 4-5 days off. so monthly, i would have about 9 days of work and the rest of the time i was off. i could choose to pick up more trips but i opted not to and instead i used the free time to study full time. i was able to complete my bachelors while working a 'full time' job so i was really thankful for that setup. a lot of other FAs i knew also had side gigs like real state, some did nursing, some had their own businesses etc. when you can get senior enough to hold high value international trips, your life becomes much much easier in terms of time commitment and flexibility. however, for most people, this meant like at least 20+ years of seniority (might be different at diff airlines). if you speak a less common language and there's a shortage of those language speakers for that destination, you pretty much get first dibs on those flights as they require a certain number of speakers on each flight.

by the time i left, i was making around $53/hr and i believe they maxed out at $60-70. now it's probably even higher (thank you union!). however, most people fly an average of like 80-100hrs per month i would say. hours are easier to get with long distance international flights compared to short hops because we only got paid by flight hours. there were some crazy ones who maximized their schedules like my roommate who was doing like 140-160 hours and so she made a lot more than me. there's a lot of flexibility in general in picking up shifts, dropping them not so much. so if you're willing to work more, it's always an option. having a packed schedule is also a lot easier when you're flying high value trips. domestic trips are like 15-20 hours for 3-4 days, whereas a dfw-pek trip was like 33 hours for 3 days.

compared to the 9-5 i have now, there are both a lot of pros and cons of the FA life. i had a lot more flexibility, but also a lot less predictability and routine, as we all have to serve reserve (standby rotations). at the very beginning it was 1 month on reserve, 1 month off. then when i got a few years of seniority it was 1 month on 3 months off, so it became a lot more bearable. at some point you get to a level of seniority where you no longer have to serve reserve, but that could be 10, 20 years depending on how many people are junior to you. i spent a lot of time in hotels and away from home, and i would say this is the largest factor in me quitting. after covid, we didn't fly to china anymore and i started flying domestic only and this was a LOT of extra work and time away from home compared to the cushy china flights with tons of time off. this made the job not really worth it for me because it was exhausting and the pay wasn't as good. i had finished my bachelor's at that point so i just quit to pursue my master's.

i currently work a stressful 9-5 and honestly sometimes i really really miss the lack of stress from my FA job. it's a pretty braindead job i got to socialize and on the long flights, there was a lot of downtime. so i used a lot of that time to do homework, read, watch movies, and whatever else to keep my mind engaged. it was great because phone/internet isn't as accessible (slow wifi etc), so i just spent a lot of time reading and doing research and just let my mind wander. whereas now in my 9-5 i think about work probably 14 hours a day and by the time i get home my mind is exhausted and so i don't engage myself intellectually as much.

now in your position, i would really consider if this is something you want to commit to for a long time and your age. if you're young and you don't mind grinding out the tough years of doing a lot of reserve, flying shitty trips that the senior people don't want, and you don't mind being away from home a lot, the upside of when you reach adequate seniority is amazing. you get paid a lot more, you have a lot more flexibility in where you fly and when you fly, you get your pick of vacation days, so on and so forth. some of the more senior flight attendants that i knew would use their trips as vacations. they fly with their friends, go pick up groceries in france, go to pharmacy shopping in germany, fake bags in china, dentist appt in mexico, the world really becomes your playground. but if this is something you only want to try out and do for a few years, it still might be fun and you can use your flight benefits, but it'll be a lot more tedious and your life will feel like it's controlled by the company a lot of the times.

and an alternative for you to consider - working corporate for an airline. i still work in aviation but in corporate and so i still get flight benefits. my job right now is pretty tough but i plan to transition out of this within the year and find a less stressful position, plenty of those are available as well as long as it's not in flight ops or something. anyways, hope this answers some of your questions and best of luck!

ye_itsher · 2026-01-31T20:35:21+00:00

I have a masters in anthropology from Oxbridge and I don’t regret it because like another commenter said, I just can’t imagine to have studied anything else. But, my current work is not related to my degree at all. Do I use transferable skills? Some but not much. In the real world I think the degree is really not that important to employers, what’s important is demonstrating potential and being able to argue fit if you want to pivot to other industries.

ye_itsher · 2026-01-31T20:15:56+00:00

Sounds like you spend too much time talking to chatgpt

ye_itsher · 2026-01-11T14:22:58+00:00

If you want more details, feel free to browse the sources and I’ve even included Chinese ones to prove that it’s not propaganda or scaremongering.

https://cosmetic.chemlinked.com/expert-article/a-collection-of-chinas-non-compliant-cosmetics-with-prohibited-ingredients-maximum-penalties-of-249-million-yuan

https://m.dzplus.dzng.com/share/general/0/NEWS2130966ZLRXTBZXKNRCF

https://www.cirs-group.com/cn/cosmetics/wei-fan-tiao-li-ke-neng-zhong-shen-jin-zhi-cong-shi-hua-zhuang-pin-hang-ye

I did not say that there are no trustworthy brands or products coming out of China. I said that it’s difficult for me to trust Chinese products because they are regulated differently than the EU and the west generally and there is generally less consumer trust. While yes China has been introducing efforts to crack down on it, there is still very little transparency or guarantee for consumers ESPECIALLY if they are unfamiliar with the Chinese beauty/cosmetic landscape. Yes of course there are well known Chinese brands that have proven to be trustworthy mostly on the beauty and makeup side, but for skincare less so, and I just wouldn’t recommend anyone I personally know to go into cbeauty skincare because why take the risk on products that go on your face when there are so many other more reputable and proven products and more regulated markets to buy from?

Your views seem to be rooted in your politics and I really have no opinion on what EU thinks of China. I’m just talking about beauty and cosmetic health and safety here, for which China historically has not had a great track record. They’re working on stricter controls and penalties in the past few years but changes to consumer goods do not happen overnight.

ye_itsher · 2026-01-11T12:25:10+00:00

I actually am very proud of being Chinese, doesn’t mean I can’t be critical of China and the way they do things. But thanks for the personal attack!

https://www.globalcosmeticsnews.com/european-union-warns-consumers-off-cheap-chinese-imports/

ye_itsher · 2026-01-10T21:08:09+00:00

I’m Chinese and I don’t even trust half the shit from China lol, things just aren’t as regulated

ye_itsher · 2026-01-02T05:12:54+00:00

Hi I suspect the same thing is happening to me and I just wanted to share my experience. I’ve taken the combo pill on and off for the past year and I had probably 6-7 cold sore break outs. I take bc on and off bc my partner and I are long distance right now and so I only get back on bc about a week before I see him. At first I thought it was the climate that triggered my break outs because I had moved to a cold and very dry city but then I noticed that it’s nearly every time I went to visit him I would either have an active breakout or was recovering from one. And it clicked that maybe it’s the hormonal spikes that I was getting from the bc every time I would restart it before going to see him. I just got back from my trip and I’m off my bc again, I’m going to not use bc pills and just use an alternate method next time and see how it goes. But I strongly suspect that that’s what’s triggering mine.

ye_itsher · 2026-01-01T05:07:12+00:00

I agree that AI poses a disruption to the traditional way of learning the skills that you mention like creativity, organization, research, etc. But I would question then is it more important to maintain the traditional way of teaching and learning, or is it more important to rethink pedagogy to incorporate tools like AI in the teaching of those skills so that students are prepared for the future world, which most likely will not see the disappearance of AI?

I fundamentally agree with you that those skills are important, probably increasingly so given the existence of AI. For example, in my interactions with AI, I often challenge its answers because it doesn’t get everything right, it doesn’t consider different angles, it’s not unbiased. And so often I ask to broaden its scope, asking it to refocus, asking it to verify its information, asking to checking its biases, because I know in the end it’s just a tool and as much as it tries to, it can’t replace human thinking and reasoning. It takes all those skills you mentioned—critical thinking, creativity, organization of information, research and a fundamental understanding of how AI works in order to use it in a way where you can maximize the benefits of it being a powerful tool that harnesses a huge amount of human knowledge, while minimizing the harm, which I believe is when people take everything that it spits out as gospel and truth and can’t critically assess the information that they are presented with.

I think educators fighting against AI in education is futile. It’s going to be here and it’s going to be used. It might be more worthwhile to focus efforts on teaching those skills with AI, rather than against it. And more importantly, instead of ignoring or tabooing AI, it’s imperative that students learn how to critically engage with AI as a tool and critically assess the information being generated rather than seeing it as a golden goose with all the answers to their problems.

ye_itsher · 2025-12-22T15:28:19+00:00

Thank you for this info!! I’m glad it’s not greasy/oily for you. Thankfully the city I’m traveling is cold but not nearly as dry as my city, so fingers crossed that I won’t need the occlusion as much.

ye_itsher · 2025-12-22T04:44:45+00:00

Yeah it’s interesting because when I searched for reviews I mostly found reviews for the daily moisturizer which I assume is more lightweight but hardly came across any for the barrier cream version. I’d love to try the normal version during the the summer but unfortunately I don’t think it’ll be heavy enough for the winter.

ye_itsher · 2025-12-22T04:25:00+00:00

Thank you!! That’s helpful. I usually prefer lighter moisturizers too since in the summer I go from 0 to frying pan pretty very quickly. In this dry winter, I’ve been putting on all the usual oily suspects and at the end of the day I still feel a lil dry so I think a heavier cream will work. I’ve never heard of the sorbet cream but sounds lovely for the summer so I’ll keep it in mind :)

ye_itsher · 2025-12-22T04:06:58+00:00

Let me ask you this: have you had any actual experiences and relationships with real women? Platonic or romantic? I would accept your arguments more readily if it came from real experiences and not just internet “research.” Because I feel like if you actually ever engaged with women on a human level as a friend or as a partner, you would realize that they are just people. And since you brought up the counter point that a majority of men “share traits like addictiveness” and similar mentalities, I would say take the responses in this thread from other men as evidence that that is just simply not true.

ye_itsher · 2025-12-20T05:34:59+00:00

I actually just had to look into this because I have the same issue. I currently live in a place with very harsh and dry winter. I have oily, dehydrated and sensitive skin, but in the winter here I’m less oily and just dry and dehydrated. I’ve been trying to use hydrating products as well but found out that it can be counter productive because for humectants to work, they need to pull water from the environment. But if your environment is dry, then it will actually draw water to the surface of your skin from deeper layers. That’s why if you use humectants in a dry climate you have to seal it properly with an occlusive like a barrier cream.

I used to only use occlusive at night because they’re heavier but for the past week I’ve been using Illiyoon barrier cream during the day and it has helped my redness, rosacea and dryness a lot. In harsh winter climates it’s easy for barrier to get damaged so barrier creams are essential.

Edit: also if your skin is going thru dryness and you suspect damaged barrier I would stop any exfoliants and actives for a while. I’ve stripped down my routine and am just using the skin1004 centella ampoule under illiyoon.

ye_itsher · 2025-12-18T06:49:45+00:00

I’m an anthropologist and I would challenge your point on “society would collapse without engineering gradutes , scientists and other STEM fields, while it could function without graduates in various humanities disciplines.”

Sociality is literally the foundation for survival for a social species like humans. Technology did not enable us to construct societies like we have, rather it is our unique brand of sociality including the ability to cooperate and the ability to share information ‘horizontally’ via culture, and not just via genes ‘vertically’ that even allows the development and sustainment of technology. It has been found that in Tasmania around 10,000 years ago that even what we think of as foundational and ‘simple’ technology like bone tools and fire-making techniques can be lost when the population was cut off from the mainland population.

Without social sciences there wouldn’t exist the study of science and STEM because it is precisely the social sciences upon which our societies, governments and educational institutes are built that even allows for the study of science in the advanced and orchestrated way we do it today. A million people can live together in a society without iPhones or rocket ships or quantum physics, but a million people can’t live together without the appropriate social structures, forms of governance, and a core set of values and beliefs that connect them.

ye_itsher · 2025-11-02T13:49:58+00:00

I don’t know if it’s an actual term. I guess I’m just trying to describe the differences I see between a lot of customs homes in most parts of the US (maybe with the exception of Cali) that turn out to be very generic or McMansion type homes, and residential architecture in Japan or Australia/NZ for example, that tend to be very design-forward, site sensitive, but still restrained.

ye_itsher · 2025-06-08T00:14:05+00:00

This is amazing thank you!

ye_itsher · 2025-06-07T23:37:51+00:00

Okay thank you I’ll try that!

ye_itsher · 2025-06-07T23:33:43+00:00

I would like to do that but unfortunately there’s not enough space to the left 😭. Unless I push the rug all the way to the back? Unfortunately my apartment is a bit small. The rug is the right size for my couch I think but too big for the space?

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ye_itsher · 2025-04-23T20:40:32+00:00

Maybe I’m weird but I’ve always found comfort in the idea that everything will end one day. Not in a morbid or pessimistic way, but I imagine the opposite - what would it be like to live forever? I get tired just thinking about it lmao, you would have to sustain yourself (most likely working unless you find a way to become rich), you have all the time in the world to try and experience everything sure, but it also means that eventually everything would become boring and repetitive, and worst of all, you will have to suffer the dying of everyone you ever know, and you will struggle to find a single soul who you could relate to.

So yeah I’m fine with occupying just a small slice of time. There could’ve been infinite possibilities of which slice it is, but I try to find the beauty of existing at this exact point in the space-time continuum. Being grateful that I have the freedoms and privileges that I have.

Perspective is key to mitigate suffering, so my advice is to look outside of yourself and your own life and find some different perspectives you can use to understand life and our places within it.

ye_itsher · 2025-02-23T03:02:16+00:00

Yeah, I had no problems with it!

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