Originally Posted by Bond

About 2.5 years ago three of us friends set out on this aviation venture. All of us had about the same amount of time, and all of us had the same options give or take a regional or two.

One of us went to Mesa chasing the quick ungrade, one of us went to a prop outfit also chasing the quick PIC, and one of us chose QOL above all.

One of us is still at Mesa able to hold upgrade, but not enough time, with horrible QOL and the potential of losing flying (see Delta)...the guy is seriously considering getting out of the industry altogether as he has nowhere to go during this downturn...not even another regional.

One of us is now prop captain with about 400 PIC, but nowhere to go, on account of very few major players hiring, and now with ATA guys (among others) on the street whom are much more qualified...well you guys get the picture (he also hates his life at this company).

Finally, one of us is still an f/o less than fifty numbers (idle nonetheless) from upgrade, probably not going to see the left until next year, which will make it almost 4 years, but really happy to go to work every day.

This is a real story, and the moral is pick a place where you could be happy at for up to 5 or 6 years...none of us thought we would be at a "regional" carrier past the three year mark (little did we know about this industry), only one of us is still happy.

Take it for what is worth, just the experience of three guys, I'm sure there's many more....