Originally Posted by luke3

Absolutely! You bid your schedule in 56 day cycles, so you will know your days off in advance for that period. About half of the schedule options are 8/6 and the others vary somewhat depending on what the planner comes up with for the bid cycle. This time around there were a lot which were mostly 5/4, a couple of 7/7, and a few completely random ones. 8/6 tends to go senior.

The bonus is paid 10k after IOE, 10k at your year 1 anniversary, and 10k at your year 2 anniversary. It's withheld at a higher rate but effectively taxed at your regular rate, you'll just get the difference back in your tax refund.

I did a rough calculation on first year CA pay assuming just straight 16 days on (so no 17th day on the overtime rate, and no picking up extra days) and it comes out to 85k. If you add the per-diem then it brings it to 95k. Add the bonus and it's 105k.