Many of my friends and acquaintances have gone to Skywest. The big draw is that for a lot of them, they are from Utah and/or want to live there. In recent months, several of my close friends have all gone to Skywest after working as CFIs at a certain school in Arizona, so they're getting that tuition reimbursement. Some of those guys are single so they live at home and commute to their base (which, based on some of the reserve shenanigans, means they sometimes end up all over the place).

But ignoring aspects like wanting to live in a particular base or get a tuition reimbursement, I can't help but think they all go there (and put up with everything) simply because they don't know any better. If you don't know anyone who has worked there for more than a year or two, and you don't read forums like this (with a grain of salt, of course), and you don't compare QOL at all other carriers, they have nothing to compare it to. They get assigned ORD and hope to get SLC some day, they just slough through reserve and everything else, because this is their first real job.