Thread: Pilot shortage fallacy & separating vs retire
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Old 07-31-2016 | 08:04 AM
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Adlerdriver
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From: 767 Captain
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Originally Posted by hindsight2020
I'm not "preemptively quitting" my living wage job to wait by the phone for an offer from an employer that doesn't give me the damn courtesy of timely training dates or even pays/houses me commensurately during training in the first place. I'm not that desperate and by my calculations, this thing gets worse for the airlines as time ticks by. In two years the mere utterance of this topic will be laughable. But hey, to each their own. The places that recognize value in military applicants will behave accordingly, the "tier 1 employers" will continue to act befuddled going forward.

I’m not sure waiting for airlines to start coordinating training dates with a DOS and paying for your housing during initial training is going to get you a seniority date any time real soon. Maybe this round of hiring and the current industry dynamics regarding pilot availability/qualifications will eventually drive them to that, but personally I wouldn’t hold my breath. Are you willing to give up years of seniority waiting/hoping for that to happen so you can have a little better first year pay and free housing for 3-months of indoc? Tick-tock goes the seniority clock.

Military pilots are desirable, but most airlines recognize the value of a good mix of civilian and mil. I think you might be overestimating the value of the average military applicant. I don’t think an attitude that seems to reflect the idea that an airline owes you the “courtesy” of anything is going to serve you very well going forward. There are a sh!t ton of highly qualified civilians already in the industry competing for the same jobs. An expectation that top tier airlines are going to start tailoring their pay structure and training practices to bring in military pilots is probably not realistic. Most airlines you want to work for are represented by a union with a contract. The company doesn’t have the option to just decide to start paying new hires more money or provide housing during training. Those things get negotiated and agreed on by both sides which doesn’t just happen whenever someone feels the need to change things up.

You’re not desperate – good. I don’t think I would advise anyone looking to transition to the airlines to make a “clean break”. Things look rosy now and hopefully they’ll stay that way. But the days of 4-6 years of active duty flying and a clean break into an airline career are long gone. Throwing 12-14 years of active duty service away to simplify the first third to a quarter of an airline career is pretty short sighted, IMO. One way or another, getting some kind of military retirement should be very high on most guys’ priority list.

There are some square pegs in the airline hiring process and some round holes in the military retention/separation process. It sounds like you’re already in the reserves, so it would seem like setting an availability date would involve a lot less risk than some guy trying to transition off active duty. The bottom line is, sooner or later you’re going to need to decide if you want the job or not which typically involves a little risk for military guys.
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