Quarryman

Certainly not enough. 16k the first year, unpaid training for 3 months, and a training contract to top that all off. One other poster suggested Cape Air. Now those guys are top notch. Yes, experience is nice but so is being able to live in anything but a cardboard box. Cape Air flies the 402. If I could have done it all over again, I would have skipped the CFI route and looked for an operator such as them. Boutique likes low timers as well but remember it's single engine time in the end. Go there if you like the flying and the company.

Avoid training contracts if at all possible. The fact that such things exist when companies cannot find enough pilots makes me think they have a retention problem and use these devices to try to hold on to people for as long as they can. *Never* pay for a job. You've already paid to get your ticket. Now it's your turn to get paid to have your ticket punched.

You're coming out of school and you probably have a load of student debt with it. Manage that beast carefully. If you managed to escape from the education racket debt free then you're ahead of many in your class.