Recently Certified. Salary: $61,000 or less 

You've finally earned your first certification, but as both a pilot and mechanic. You're just not sure which branch of inspections you'd prefer to pursue as an inspector. Pilot or mechanic? Pilot or mechanic? The choice haunts you nightly—tearing at you, clawing at you, pulling you apart. Fortunately, you have three years to decide.

Maintenance Safety Inspector. Salary: $72,000 

You spend your days walking through hangars, checking plane engines, and testing navigation systems. You spend your nights trying to impress strangers by letting them think you're a two-bit auto mechanic before gradually building up to the fact that you're actually working on top-of-the-line commercial airliners. It works about 20% of the time, but when it does, it's awesome.

Avionics Safety Inspector. Salary: $87,000 

You hit five years as inspector, and in all that time you've never let a single mistake pass you by. No one's impressed. "Big deal," they say. "That's your job," they say. Using your pilot's license, you rent a small stunt plane and write a perfect "How do you like me now?" in cursive contrail above the airport. That'll show them.

Operations Safety Inspector. Salary: $100,000 

Most of your work is performed from within a tiny cubicle. You miss the smells, sights, and space of airport hangers, but you earned this tiny little desk after fifteen years of hard work, and you're determined to be proud of it. And why shouldn't you be? (But seriously, you were supposed to get a window like six months ago.)

Inspector of Inspectors. Salary: $120,000 

Who inspects the inspectors? You do. You've personally discovered the cause of two—count them—two international plane crashes. You've issued safety certificates to more than 1,000 planes, and the FAA comes to you for advice on safety procedures instead of the other way around. There'll probably never be a Hollywood blockbuster about an aviation safety inspector, but if there is, it'll be about you.