Originally Posted by
captande
To build on that, there’s so much more that gets missed foregoing those 18-24 months in the right seat of said airline. Knowing the contract, the FOM, the nuances of the airplane that aren’t always written in the manuals. Knowing your contractual rights when scheduling tries to push you. Having a working knowledge of the FOM to CYA when you have to make a difficult call as the PIC. Having that time as an FO to live and digest that stuff passively as you work towards that 1000 SIC is often overlooked. In today’s hiring market I’d be very cautious making that DEC jump, whether it be for TPIC or financial reasons. A bust isn’t the end of the world but it just leads to unnecessary questions on an interview. As it was said: be brutally honest with yourself, weigh all possible opportunities, and know what you’re getting into.
Along those lines... the CA is often the adult supervision of the operation. If he's not familiar with operational and cultural nuances, it's going to be a lot harder to tap the brakes and say "we're not going to do this today". He has to be comfortable saying no to dispatch, station ops, crew scheduling, ATC, and even flight ops management. Have to know the regs and FOM inside and out, at least to the point where you know what page to turn to for the right answer. When you have 3 other crew, 70 pax, four rampers, one gate agent, and one station manager all standing there expecting you to go, the pressure is on... hard spot for someone who is basically a new-hire 121 noob.