Originally Posted by
usmc-sgt
Dont be so fixated on multi engine time, get total time as that is what matters and the multi engine will fall into place. I guarantee if you end up with 2000TT at an interview and 16 multi you will be just as competetive as another applicant with 600 hours and 100 multi engine especially if your total time was doing something valuable such as CFI time.
I would have to disagree with this part (the rest is spot-on)...
I know that in the last several years, some regionals hired with 50 hours ME or even just a AMEL. But when hiring is tight, regionals commonly look for 1000-3000 total time, with 300-500 hours ME (competetive might be even higher). If they are looking for 2000TT, 16 or 50 ME probably won't cut it. The reason is that 1200 hour pilots can get 135 jobs, so many 2000 hour pilots will have 135 experience with plenty of twin time.
During the post 9/11 slowdown I finally quit my ASEL CFI gig to go get an MEI job...several months later I hit 400 ME, and the phone started ringing. All the folks in my interview groups also had hundreds of ME hours. At thaat time, the 2000 hour ASEL CFI's were going nowhere fast.
Of course I don't know for sure what the future will hold, but I would consider past history pretty carefully.
At this point I would probably take the first CFI job available...but keep an eye out for ME opportunuties, especially CFI jobs where you can move up into a twin later on down the road.