Drone pilot: what does it consist of and how much do you earn in this new profession?

Thanks to the development of technologies such as 5G and cloud storage, careers such as drone pilots are beginning to gain space in the job market.

It is true, the fourth industrial revolution has been accompanied (and will continue to be) by a series of layoffs due to process automation (machines doing the work that humans used to do). Not to go too far, we recently reported on the collective dismissal being prepared by Banco Itaú in Colombia, with which it seeks to lay off 288 of its employees.

	(Reference image) Part of the uses of this technology is crop review and also agricultural applications.

The reasons given by the banking entity is that it is facing a transition towards digital transformation , in which it no longer needs many tasks carried out by its operators, either because a machine is capable of doing them, or because they have become obsolete. However, this new revolution should not be demonized, since job opportunities are also being created that seek professionals capable of responding to the needs posed by productivity in the 21st century (Itaú, for example, wants to hire more than 200 people with these characteristics).

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Drone pilot: what does it consist of and how much do you earn in this

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An example of the above is the drone pilot , a career that leverages technologies such as cloud data storage and processing, robotics and 5G connectivity .

Just think how strange it would have sounded 30 years ago to say that a person’s job is to put on a pair of goggles and, with a controller or gloves, pilot an unmanned craft (which in most cases is no more than a meter in height). diameter) which is about five or ten kilometers away. To be honest, even today it is difficult to understand that a person dedicates himself to that.

But it is already a reality, in fact, in Latin American countries such as Mexico and Colombia there are academic programs for the training of this type of professionals, which can last between one and two years.

Part of the curriculum that makes up the academic training of this profession includes (in addition to the techniques for piloting an unmanned vehicle) knowledge of the rules for the use of airspace (such as the prohibition of overflying airports, government areas or private spaces), so ethics is one of the main differentials of those who carry out this activity as a hobby.

According to the director of strategy and marketing of Huawei Cloud , Alfonso Jiménez (who also participated last week in the ICT congress organized by this Chinese technology company), the drone pilot career was coined in the framework of the pandemic, precisely because the need to automate processes from security, revision, maintenance and safeguarding.

And this makes sense, because the operation of a drone, for example, can allow the easy exploration of a forested area, or the revision of an antenna component at high altitude, without the need for a person to spend time and effort in said area. exercise. This also translates into greater guarantees for the safety of workers, since a large part of the varied offer of services that can be satisfied by a drone pilot involves risky activities.

“Other interesting use cases are real-time terrain analytics, traffic review, and electrical or metal installations. These unmanned vehicles transmit the information in real time to the ground operation base, and from there decisions can be made such as how much raw material is needed to carry out maintenance, or how many operators are required to carry out a certain task, at what time and in which area”, explains Jiménez.

The technology expert also highlights the role that the storage and processing of data in the cloud has for the operation of this type of device, as well as the decreases in latency offered by 5G, so it is expected that as If these types of solutions are deployed in countries like Colombia, it will be easier to carry out activities such as drone piloting.

Like other careers related to the fourth industrial revolution, drone pilots are highly in demand today and, according to some reports from people who already exercise this work, the income can be around US$25,000 and US$50,000 a year (from 103 million to 205 million Colombian pesos).

However, like any career, it has its buts. This, being new, is not as well known in the market, so the drone pilot (or the company that hires him) has to make great efforts to promote his services and get clients.

Obviously, the potential of drone piloting also extends to the military field. Experts consulted by this means even affirm that people with experience in gaming are attractive for such purposes , so interacting with video games (in some scenarios) could also be valid as a component of a resume when presenting for a job interview.

In short, its applications are almost infinite and this is projected as one of the careers with the greatest demand in the future, along with others that make up the group of professions that arise from the industrial revolution 4.0, where analysts and scientists also have a place. of data, programmers and specialists in Artificial Intelligence. What other interesting careers will we see born in the coming years?