I'm a lowly regional guy working for an AA wholly owned, but I'll give you some of my personal anecdotal information. At ATP-CTP this recruiter came in and told us that a couple years ago the majors used to only hire guys who were astronauts because there were so few jobs, but times are changing quickly and now they just want people who are competent and qualified. She even told us that Delta was currently the easiest Major to get into and they were hiring guys they wouldn't have even called a year ago, granted this was last April and I'm sure things have changed since then. I mean, UPS is already hiring pilots without college degrees.

I don't think having a 'blue-collar' background would hurt in the slightest. Nobody cares where you came from as long as they can rely on you professionally and they enjoy being around you. I came from a military/construction background as well and, if anything, it gives a lot of common-ground stuff to talk about. If I interviewed somewhere and the pilot group didn't like talking about building house projects, cars, power tools, etc I'd moonwalk right out the door. Also, there are a lot of veterans, pilots, non-pilots, enlisted, active, guard, etc. Military seem to be drawn to this career field. I wouldn't worry about 'being looked down on,' because in my (albeit limited) experience, the most despised pilots are the ones with superiority complexes because of where they came from. Maybe that attitude is more common among the old-schoolers in the majors, but I haven't seen it at all where I'm at. And even in the majors, at least half of those guys are civilians who had to grind it out somewhere that wasn't glamorous.