Originally Posted by
Longhornmaniac8
We've all been where you are now. When I was there, I was so frustrated by getting answers like you were given above when asking for advice. Now that I'm here, I truly understand the sentiment. This industry is so volatile, and so much will change in that time. Contracts, work rules, pay, possibly mergers, there is just so much that is unknowable looking forward.
The best advice I can give you is to hold off on committing yourself as long as humanly possible. Some cadet programs (e.g. Envoy) want you to sign a 2-year commitment a year before you'd hit mins. That is insane, and no one should ever do that.
The only thing I would add to this is keep track of how far out classes are for the airline you decide to go to. It wasn’t long ago you made your decision, did your interview , and got a class date 3 weeks out. While it might be that way at ExpressJet, at Republic classes are filled almost year out. So just keep that in mind.
Also, Republic of 4-5 years ago is not the company you see today. I think as Republic continues to be a top tier regional, attracting top tier talent the majors will start hiring more from the Republic pilot group. This is just speculation of course.