Originally Posted by
RV5M
...but those mainline pay scales keep luring me to stay. Then again, I could never reach mainline, so it's a tough call...
I think you just hit the nail on the head there but didn't realize...
"The lure of mainline" is the only reason airlines are able to pay so low....even the mainlines pay super low salaries for the most part.
I amazes me still that no one seems to notice the problem when there are only a few decent jobs for every hundred or so qualified pilots in America. This delusion that you must desperately hang on to that bottom rung along with everyone else for the mere hope that one day you will win the lottery.
The problem now is that many smaller part 135 "corporate" operators are also playing this game and offering low paying FO jobs with the lure of slightly higher but still pitifully low captain jobs with the type rating that you need to get that high end corporate job that is super rare.
If professional pilots stopped thinking that the goal is a bigger plane and instead focused on the career itself we would all do a lot better.
That being said....you can do international long haul and oceanic flights in a mid sized biz-jet these days and whether the HR departments at the major airlines think so or not that's better aviation experience then city hopping in a regional jet. You also can develop other skills and get to meet interesting people and go to cool places which may cause you to rethink your career.