Originally Posted by FlyJSH

If by that you mean as the industry changes, you modify your plan to get to your ultimate goal, fine. But if you mean you don't really have some kind of plan (including contingency plans), then you are unlikely to end up in a place you want to be.

Early on, you said you wanted to be at Cathy, but would not take a cruise pilot. If Cathy was what you really want, I would take just about any flying job with the company since they presumably upgrade from within (I know nothing about Cathy, so assumption may be wrong).

If you see a furlough on the horizon, I would look into a voluntary LOA and start looking for a job the offers ANY PIC. There are several good 135 companies which will pay around $30k to start in a Caravan. Even a high performance piston single could earn mid $20s. They aren't sexy, but you will be PIC, dispatcher, and have first hand contact with the customer: resume bullets that are all valuable.

You have a job (at least for now). That is better than many folks right now. You are current, again better than many. Crying in your beer won't help.... and it is a waste of beer.

Start planning now, be ready to adjust your plans, and if make a bad choice (or rather when, since all of us has) let it go and start planning again.

Unless you are somebody's daughter at Super Great Airlines, there aren't any shortcuts.