Originally Posted by
jcountry
You said it yourself.
You are retiring soon.
You didn’t come up in our era, so you probably have different circles of coworkers and acquaintances.
Many (not all) of the minorities I know have advanced to legacies much more quickly. All my WASPy friends were at military/regional jobs for about ten years before hitting a legacy.
I have a hard time remembering many minorities who even put in three years in the coal mines of regionals. I can think of a couple who got snatched up in their first year.
I even know of a couple of women who were hired at you-know-exactly-where in the late 80s or early 90s who only had a brand new commercial pilot certificate. Right from a Cessna or piper to a Boeing.
Don’t go and try to tell anyone it’s a level playing field. It certainly isn’t.
The reason fewer minorities are represented is because far fewer are pilots. The ones who are usually have a golden career at their disposal.
There most certainly is preferential hiring going on.
I may be from another time, but I've seen a lot of changes in this industry. And I've flown everything from crap broken down pistons, to Convairs, to turboprop commuters to RJs, to Airbus. And I'll retire from a ULCC. Long career and I never made it to a legacy carrier. But I blame no one except me being at the wrong place at the wrong time, a nearly mid life career change, and starting over a few times. **** happens.
Maybe you and your buddies sat fat dumb and happy in the left seat of an RJ throughout the lost decade, just turning the lights on and off, but now suddenly its ending, you have nothing to show for it but 10,000+ hours and a chip on your shoulder? While the younger ones never gave up, kept networking, kept volunteering, got new ratings, etc.
But no, its reverse discrimination. Yeah it's so hard to be a white guy in an industry that's 95% white and male. GMAFB.
I hope you get out of Expressjet before the music stops. I've been in your shoes (CMR) and it's not fun. A change of attitude may be required though. Nobody is going to buy into the white victim line you're selling. Not with HR doing the hiring. Good luck.