LAX is going pretty junior. Good chance that you can hold it right out of training. I believe more than 50% of the LAX base are commuters the last time I checked. Unless you have family ties down there, the housing prices make it difficult to live anywhere near the airport unless you enjoy hearing frequent sirens and gun fire. Upgrade is running around 10 years if you are willing to go up to ANC. Upgrade time in LAX is probably the highest mainly due to lack of growth. I doubt LAX will ever get significant growth-just my guess. Growth comes in terms of seat miles rather than pilots, here at Alaskan. 200+ pilots over a time span of just over a decade is hardly considered growth by any means.
Over 60% of this pilot group signed a 5 year contract in 2013. Don't expect to see a new contract until well past the amendable date. Weak association+ultra greedy management=sub-mediocre contract years past amendable date. My .02. The current contract is well below mediocre deal. That's why our pay is where it's at. Soon, Alaskan pilots will be the lowest paid 737 pilots in the legacy world by a big margin and one of the lowest paid in the major world.
If you still want to come here, more power to you. In any case, good luck.