Originally Posted by
Shangri La
So I have a theory; As a young airline pilot at 24, and about to be upgrading at my current shop in a couple of months. Traditional thought would be to stay. Upgrade. Get 1,000 TPIC. Save kittens from trees on your days off. Wait. And leave for one of the BIG 4. My theory; is why not if offered a job at an U/LCC such as F9 or NK prior to upgrading taking it, and escaping regional purgatory? If hiring at the legacies picks up as its foretasted to, everyone's saying TPIC wont matter anyway, and if the economy tanks (already been 8 years since the last one) You're at a place that would be fine to hang the hat for awhile. Worst case with 40+ years left in this industry one would assume they could make it to a legacy at some point from F9 or NK if they wanted to anyway. I guess it boils down to, you never know when that legacy is going to call, there's still plenty of much more qualified pilots than someone like me in line for the Big 4. So why not make a move to the majors while the gettings good? Not saying I'm going down this path, but I'm looking for a little food for thought, as I'm sure I'm not the only one that has thought about this?
REAL BIG PICTURE;
1) PIC is STILL IMPORTANT, just LESS IMPORTANT as a discriminator as it once was.
2) Going to an LCC/ULCC with no PIC could help, might not matter. Sure, everyone likes to say “man, get that Airbus type and you’ll called by a legacy in NO TIME!!” Sure, maybe maybe not. Might still have to be saving kittens, updating frequently, preferably have good (enough) GPA, etc.
I know some FO’s that went to a LCC/ULCC/ACMI thinking it’d be the golden ticket to a legacy, crickets. As well as others that did and it worked out. But usually for those that it worked out they weren’t much different than the FO’s I knew that went RJ FO to a legacy. Good GPA, networked, lots of recruiter face time, rescue kittens on their days off, etc.
3) Sure, there’s a lot of “qualified pilots” in the app stack as measured from a bygone criteria. As in, lots of PIC. Thing is, those guys are “qualified” flight experience wise and clean records, but are likely dark decade guys. Meaning, they’re a little older, have obligations and families and don’t have time for things like kitten rescue on their min day off regional commuting schedule. As well as considered “career stagnant”.
Meanwhile the younger pilots can tend to check more boxes that are points drivers for the app review/score process that the HR people like to see in the performance based/targeted selection brave new hiring world in which we’re in.
Like I said, ALL REAL BIG PICTURE.
But one thing has proven sure, you can’t get hired if you don’t apply.
But I agree with GF. I’ve been furloughed with no PIC, and it sucked.....