It's never as bad as some people say and it's never as good as other people say. The truth lies somewhere in between.

I just finished 737 training and am in the middle of IOE. While I don't feel I know the systems extremely well, that's been the case with just about every training I've been through, military or civilian. To get to know the systems really well takes experience combined with personal study. Whether it's a CBT or an instructor talking at you, it's never a substitute for experience.

As far as flying the airplane, like any training I've been through, I feel like I had just enough to get by. Probably could have used a few more sims to just learn flying the plane without all the non-normals thrown in. But I also realize time is money. It was the same way at my previous airline.

I was lucky to have consistent instruction and instructors who genuinely seemed interested in my success. Was supposed to have 1 instructor for all my full flights leading up to the MV. Only reason I didn't was due to incompletes as a result of the sim breaking in Miami. Of all the folks in my indoc (23 new hires, all 737), have only heard of one individual having an issue on the LOE. As with every plane I've flown, the real learning begins on IOE.