Charles has always wanted to be a pilot. But the cost of attending an aviation school in Manila, Philippines is quite high. Charles says the aviation school he wanted to attend was charging a tuition fee of ₱4.5M in 2019. What's more, the school required a ₱1M deposit to enroll.
Charles says he already finished a 4-year college course and his dad didn't want to pay for his avaition course specially if Charles wasn't serious about it.
To pacify his son, Charles' dad agreed to bankroll his aviation course only if Charles could come up with the ₱1M deposit required by the school.
This is why Charles decided to work in Hong Kong and save up for this deposit. He applied for a job at HAECO thinking it would be at least related to aviation. But HAECO turned him down saying they needed staff who could speak Cantonese. HAECO does aircraft engineering and maintenance.
Charles found a job at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Hong Kong. It was a low-level job but Charles didn't mind. If he was frugal he might be able to save ₱1M in three years!
It was while working in Inter-Continental that Charles got a call from someone in Haeco informing him that they are ready to employ him and that his contract of employment was ready for him to sign. But Charles found out that Haeco was offering a salary of only 12,000 HKD. Charles was now torn between wanting to work with an aviation- related company or wanting to save money to attend aviation school.
In the end, Charles had to be realistic. His job at the Inter-Continental was paying him 19,000 HKD. It made more sense to stay with Inter-Continental!
But there is a twist to Charles' story. His job at the Inter-Continental was a lowly one. But he still worked hard at his job. He didn't take any short cuts or cut corners.
The end of the year came around and the hotel passed out their bonus envelopes. When Charles opened his enveloped and saw the amount of his bonus, it took his breath away! It was four times his monthly salary! His savings plus his bonus had reached ₱1M! He could now pay the deposit required by his aviation school!
Of course Charles had to give his one-month notice to his boss so he could go off and enroll at this aviation school. I looked accusingly at Charles and said "You did not...!" Charles nodded his head and confirmed he did give his 30-day notice. I asked Charles what his boss's reaction was. Charles said his boss gave him a look that he couldn't describe.
Charles says he worked at Inter-Continental Hotel for a year and 10 months.
Fast forward to today. Charles has now finished his aviation course. He is now a licensed commercial pilot(CPL). This means he has already done 200 hours in air(flying). A CPL is a prerequisite to ATPL. ATPL requires a pilot to have done 1500 hours in air besides passing the ATPL exams.
