It’s all about your total log book. If you have the right time, you don’t need the contacts as much. If you have the right contacts, then you don’t need the right time as much. Then factor in how competitive the job market is at the time too. But the right contacts usually can surmount, or elevate you above the competition.

If your are like most of us, then a blend of time is more competitive. Pilatus time on top of CFI time may get you somewhere but that pilot won’t be as competitive as one with ME Turbine time.

Employers want to see you successful in the flying that they are hiring into. The closest type of flying you can get, the better you are able to say in the interview essentially, “look, you fly jet-glass from A to B, with a crew, that’s what I’ve been doing for the last four years, was successful there, and I’ll be successful with you.”

If you can't say that, then you need to prove that you are trainable and will be able to get up to speed quickly.

What can be so exasperating are those stories of the friend of a friend who got hired at Delta/Southwest/FedEx/UPS etc. with 1800 hours of Piper Meridian time. You never know the back story of a person and why something happened for them. All you can do is enjoy the process, the “trip” if you will, not the destination, and know that one day you will look back on your earlier flying as probably the best flying you ever did.