Roughly half the employed pilots in this country are flying for "regionals" or feeders, or "majors" if you prefer. This means that there will be few opportunities to jump up to a major anytime soon. Not from a regional right seat. In the "old" days, the feeders had roughly 25% of the flying mainline had, therefore there were more mainline jobs and almost anyone who wanted could go at some point in their career. Not so today. And even if you do make it, look at the number of furloughs, bankruptcies, and liquidations. Get caught in one of those and it hurts.

That is not being negative. That is our industry at the moment. I had a UPS interview in 2007. I didn't get the job. Whatever reason they do not say. The human resources guy actually congratulated me for getting an interview because he had "8000 resumes and applications" and I was one of 400 interviews that year. Why would he be that smug? Because he could. And all those fine pilots that left good jobs for UPS in 2007? They are facing furlough in a couple of months. And UPS is not even losing money.

Try to make your present company better. You may be there longer than you think. I actually tried to be cautious and select a job I would truly enjoy and was secure. I was at my "regional" for 9 years because of it. 3 years after leaving I am furloughed. Sometimes all the planning in this industry still is not as valuable as dumb luck.