For my wife it was all about being based in IAH since we live there. There is absolutely no point in commuting to a regional if you don't have to, and she didn't need to go back to work. First choice was XJT as we have lots of friends there and she got an interview offer within hours of submitting her app. Put off the interview for a couple weeks to do some prep. 2 days before the interview XJT announces the parking of a bunch of airplanes, hiring will be brought to a halt soon, and some of our friends got furlough letters out of the training department. The interview process was a downer to say the least with little chance of being based in IAH for some time.

Started looking at other regionals based in IAH which is Mesa, and Skywest. Mesa was more appealing than Skywest for many reasons. Chief among them was the direction Mesa was going since restructuring. Skywest management was busy playing the ASA and XJT pilots against each other while the non-union Skywest pilots were sitting on the sidelines showing no interest in organizing to put an end to the nonsense. No thanks!

That left Mesa and the rest is history as they say.