Corporate Regrets?
I did 8 years of corporate. 3 regionals, one LCC, one major, lots of furloughs. Then went part 91 for a Fortune 500 for another 8 years.
Started out as the best job I could imagine in aviation. It was everything I hoped a flying job could be. Lots of time at home, very few overnights. Weekends and holidays at home, good money, great equipment, and the department had never laid off.... Until it did. Before long the layoffs were followed by more overnights, 28 day "tours", days off rescinded with no notice, expense control that bordered on ludicrous.
Soooo... came back to 121. Now I wonder why I left and lament the loss of seniority over those 8 years.
Corporate can be fantastic, no question about it, it can be better than any major airline by a wide margin. The problem is that there are no guarantees and, at least in my case, it changed for the worse very quickly. Went from being my dream job to the corporate equivalent of Mesa almost overnight.
I still find it sad that the management there took the best job in aviation and made the choice to turn it into nothing more than a stepping stone.