Originally Posted by
Andy Dufresne
My college roommate is currently sitting at ~2000 hours as a CFII, and is waiting to hear from the couple of regionals he had CJOs from last year pre-Covid. He was just offered a position flying SIC (with a PIC type rating paid for) in a Citation X as a Part 91 operation - making around $120,000 and flying around 350-400 hours per year. His long term career goal is to make it to United, and he's wondering if he needs to turn down this job and wait on the regionals to call, or if he'd set himself up better by taking the jet job. If taking the jet job, how long should he be there before attempting to move on?
Any thoughts or advice?
This is totally subjective, as everyone's path to a major is different. At the end of the day, taking care of #1 is the most important. $120K isn't too shabby that early in his career!
If United is the end goal, definitely look at the regionals currently in the Aviate program: Air Wisconsin, CommutAir, Mesa and Go-Jet. These will have a pathway based off of service requirements. You apply, do the interview and wait for your FIFO (first in first out) number once you've fulfilled the time requirements.
Taking the Corp job sounds awesome. The flight time will likely take longer to get to be competitive as an off the street hire, but the pay might buffer that blow a bit. But is the pay worth the possible loss of seniority due to the time to get hired? Tough questions. Long term, I'd go with that better seniority number.
Long story short, it's all opinion and an educated guess. However, there is plenty of info out there to help make the decision.
https://unitedaviate.com