Originally Posted by
rickair7777
I had a friend at my previous regional who did an internship with CAL while in college. He was out of that RJ right seat after 18 months, at age 27, with 1001 turbine.
If you have an opportunity to do an internship at a MAJOR airline, do it. I wouldn't waste time doing a regional internship, spend them summer CFIing instead.
Yup, you're right.. but the smart ones do BOTH. There are plenty that have done TWO internships during college, gotten all their ratings including CFI even if they have no plans to use it (because some regionals state that they prefer applicants with CFIs and so it makes them competitive), AND graduated on time. That way, they have a regional interview lined up with slashed mins after graduation.. and when they reach whatever number of right seat time in a regional, they can apply to the major where they interned. Like you said, CAL for example counts SIC time too, instead of requiring 1000 PIC turbine or whatever. (I don't know the exact specifics of that certain program, but it's something like that.)
What you do in a major internship depends on the department where you're assigned.. I've heard of some people getting ground instruction, sim time, and I think all or most of those internships have some kind of jumpseating allowance.