Lakes was my first airline. From what I hear, not much has changed in the last 8 years.

Lakes was a lot of fun. The crews were great, the flying was challenging, and management treated us like dirt. That really pulls the employees together. You will be flying a B1900 in the mountains with no autopilot. Training has always been excessively (and needlessly) difficult compared to similar carriers, and at least when I was there, the instructors were more like drill sergeants than instructors. Maybe that's changed. Regardless, you will fly your butt off, upgrade quick, and hopefully get your butt out.

One thing of note, many jet regionals like ASA have minimums similar to Lakes. ASA may suck, but it's still better in a CRJ at 350 than playing flight attendant in a B1900 with 10 deferrals and no autopilot. Oh and our FO pay is more than Lakes Captain pay.