Everyone has their own "basket" of needs when it comes to career expectations. I was an Eastern pilot during the strike of '89. I looked at the hiring curves for all of the airlines and only applied to United. FEDEX and NWA apps were filled out and ready for emergency submission, but ultimately not required. Airlines are a curious collection of ADHD corporations. When I got hired by EAL in July '85, it was the place to be, given that DAL wasn't hiring yet (started in 8/85) and AAL was B scale. NWA was an ok place to go, but Minneapolis and Detroit weren't my goals. So after EAL went under, I took the emotion out of employer selection and determined that United had the best hiring curve/retirement curve for me. 9/11 happened (and could happen again) and al that changed. But ultimately, as a 59 year old guy with a nominal retirement age of 65, because of the higher concentration of true wide body paying Captain seats at UAL, I will retire in 5.5 years probably with more time in said premium seat than many of my contemporaries that got hired by DL in 8/85. But a lot of schitt can happen in 5.5 years. Bottom line-do your homework; where do you want to live?; will you be happy flying domestic narrow body Captain for the rest of your career (not knocking it)?; What is the long term prognosis for the airline you've chosen, knowing what we know right this minute?; Do you mind flying freight on the back side or internationally on the all sides?; Where do you want to live and what is your commuting stress threshold?; What airline do you best socially identify with (they're significant differences, but you can individually change them as Captain on every trip, as I do)? You will never know if you've been successful until you set the brakes on your last flight. And even then, with bankruptcy laws, you might still have made the wrong decision. Save money, enjoy every day, bid what you love to fly and understand this is the price we pay for having a most awesome career.