We have a lot of good people that have done just that, and ended up here happy.

It is, however, a lot of "eggs in one basket". We seem to have people from other carriers get hired here. If you went to another company, kept updating, jiggling your app, etc you might or might not get called in the future. But--in the event of a hiring freeze, or an (unlikely) bad day with your boss, or other hiccup you'll still be gaining seniority and hours at another airline. Pragmatically--that seems like a better bet...

An exception is the guys who fly in the ANG. If they get a pro job, and FedEx never follows through, they are current and can still go other places. I'm thinking AA or Delta is going to be an uphill climb if you haven't touched a jet in two years.

But again--some of my favorite folks here at FedEx did the pro thing a while, and it worked out very well for them. Good luck whatever you decide.