Careers after Airline Pilot: 10 jobs where your skills transfer.
Every related role O*NET lists for airline pilots, scored by how closely the skill profile matches, what it pays and how much extra preparation it needs. Original analysis, sources below.
- Operation and Control
- Operations Monitoring
- Active Listening
- Critical Thinking
- Commercial Pilot
- Locomotive Engineer
- Air Traffic Controller
The jobs closest to an Airline Pilot's skills are Commercial Pilot, Locomotive Engineer and Air Traffic Controller (96%, 60% and 56% skill match). None of the related roles both pays more and needs no extra preparation.
Where your skills transfer
Data Skill match and pay change are our calculations from O*NET and BLS data (method below).
The three closest moves
Data Skills where the destination's O*NET level is at least half a point higher are listed as gaps.
Already strong: Operation and Control, Operations Monitoring, Active Listening, Reading Comprehension.
To build: Repairing, Equipment Selection.
Already strong: Operation and Control, Operations Monitoring, Monitoring, Reading Comprehension.
To build: Repairing, Equipment Selection.
Already strong: Complex Problem Solving, Monitoring, Judgment and Decision Making, Critical Thinking.
To build: Complex Problem Solving, Operations Analysis, Service Orientation.
How to make the move
Advice
- Weeks 1 to 2Pick one destination
Commercial Pilot is the closest match at 96%. Weigh pay against preparation in the matrix.
- Weeks 2 to 6Close the top gap
For Commercial Pilot, the biggest gap is repairing. Build one piece of proof for it.
- Weeks 4 to 8Reframe your resume
Lead with operation and control, operations monitoring, written in the destination's language.
- From week 6Talk to people in the role
Ask three commercial pilots what they wish they had known before switching.
How this page is built
Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared. Pay change compares the BLS national median annual wages (May 2025) of the two occupations. Preparation change compares O*NET Job Zones (Job Zones 1-2, 3, 4 and 5, from very little to extensive preparation; O*NET 31.0 combines zones 1 and 2). Destinations without BLS wage data or O*NET skill ratings are left out.
- Licensing or degree rules for a specific destination.
- Whether employers in your area hire career changers.
- Your own skills: the scores compare occupations, not people.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.
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