Originally Posted by WindshearAhead

Based on personal experience, friends' experience, and lurking the posts on these forums, I know this for a fact:

Fantastic training departments:
United, Frontier, Mesa, Endeavor, Republic, Piedmont, ABX Air, Omni Air, Air Transport International

Horrible training departments:
PSA (believe me on this one, this I know for a fact). Air Wisconsin.

Questionable training departments (some say its alright, some others say its bad, its 50/50... I've heard of guys with prior regional 121 jet experience fail initial checkride, so)
Spirit


What makes a training department great is:

-How organized they are... do they give you everything you need right away. Is the material well organized, and presented good visually and easy to understand? do they give you a syllabus? or throw a bunch of crap out you and expect you to spend days and days deciphering it.
-The quality of instruction... does the instructor just speak in a monotone voice during ground school with death by powerpoint? or are they funny, engaging, keep you awake, encourage you to ask questions, gets everyone to participate, and has a "no-one-gets-left-behind" attitude towards the students
-How many instructors you are given throughout your training
-Family feel Vs. Just a number over there
-Class size... smaller is ALWAYS better. Everyone becomes friends and helps each other out. Everyone knows Everyone. class size of 30+ is NOT the way to go.
-Communication by email, if the training department solves any issues you have or if they ignore your emails
-Simulator availability... will you lose proficiency waiting months for a sim
-Does any one APD have a history of being douchee in the company?