Here is another way of looking at it:

UPS has 2,945 pilots total.

Average career length 30 years.

Divide 2945 pilots /30 years = 98.1 average new hires per year.

I read here on the forum some place that at any time UPS has over 14,000 applications on file from current and qualified pilots.

Divide the number of applications on file by the average annual hire amount 14,000/98.1 and you get odds of 142.7 to one of getting hired at UPS.

Like any company they hire the best and the brightest that are available at the time. If you miss the window and have to wait another couple of years then your odds have reduced a bit. Now you are an aging captain who looks a bit like an underachiever if you are still the pilot of an RJ four years later. Wait another 4 years and you are nearly out of the running.

We all fight and sacrifice for our brief moment in the hiring spotlight. HR departments like young enthusiastic early achievers with positive attitudes and few attachments. Miss the cycle or gain a little weight and it could be over for you. Anyone who has been in this industry for a decade or more has a resume that my have a lay off or furlough on it. As time drags on it becomes difficult to avoid having some kind of career blemish or hardship. Just more questions for the HR department to dwell on and your odds slip a bit further.

And the price of oil just keeps going up.

SKyHigh