oo7kerpow

Getting my ATP/CTP in March and currently my plan is to submit my apps for review to friends and formal review companies and then hit submit the week I finish ATP. I keep hearing from everyone to get the apps in as soon as possible and then just update them frequently. But I also hear that I shouldn't submit an app before the basic qualifications are met. Not trying to game the system for an earlier interview--my availability date doesn't change regardless. Will publishing early put me in the wrong bin and be looked at unfavorably? Currently active duty AF separating in March. Appreciate any thoughts.

Sliceback

Apply now. You need to lead turn the fight. Separating in March and getting the ATP then, at best, gets you hired at a major three months later.

Getting your ATP now moves the possibility of getting hired up to March.

What’s the plan upon separating? You can interview with regional airlines now and separate/retire and be in regional ground school the next day. That adds 121, a new type rating, and broadens your experience which are all positive points on your resume.

Good luck.

oo7kerpow

Slice,

Thanks for your thoughts. Perhaps I should have given more initial info, but I wanted to see what people though about the idea itself without context. My wife is also an active duty pilot and we are separated until June while she finishes her in residence school. I've got the kids with me in school. We find out late March what her next assignment is. Here is my plan, feel free to throw spears:

Early March-CTP/ATP (first available class with the company I wanted)
Late March-Separate, find out spouse new base, publish apps
April-Jun-Take care of our two kids/sell house/move/etc, interview as necessary
Jun-Listed availability date

I could put Mar 30 as my availability date but I'd essentially hand my paycheck to my nanny for three months, if she could even do it. Due to my life stuff I was willing to suck up the three months of waiting in order to take care of business while my sugar momma pays the bills :-) Especially since I am definitely going to have to commute (with the exception of a few regionals) at the locations I expect her to get as an assignment next (St. Louis, CSprings, Tampa, maaaayyybe DC, prolly not) and as an FNG with no seniority I figured it would be rough on the family while trying to move my family from two locations to wherever we are next.

Which is the onus for my original question. I figured publishing now theoretically gives me time to get interviewed with whomever and get the earliest possible class date for June (best case scenario), but my application would be sans CTP/ATP until March. I do have an idea of the airlines (regional and major) in mind that would work best for my wife's next two assignments.

Reading your post, I wonder if I should submit apps to regionals now (for the same June start date) and then at least Id be employed while I waited for a call from Majors, assuming I even get one. At 2000 TT, 800 PIC, almost all multi-engine (only pilot training isnt), one negative indicator, and decent GPA (HS 4.0, college ~3.0, Masters+ 3.3) I figured I was at the low end of competitive anyway.

Sliceback

Ask anyone who’s at a major - handing your paycheck to a nanny, for three months, in order to get hired three months earlier, is a great deal.

The value at the end of your career (assuming you’re in your mid 30’s) is $45-50K per month.

If it pays off you’ll be 150-300 numbers more senior right away as well as 50-150 numbers more senior at the end of your career. As well as being $100-130K richer at the end.

Sliceback

If I’d been hired three months earlier I would’ve made at least $100,000 more in the last couple of years combined. Add in three more months at the end and it’s easily worth more than $200,000. That’s ignoring additional holidays and decent vacations you accumulate from being slightly more senior.

oo7kerpow

Right, I'm with you on the cost benefit of starting earlier. If I knew I'd be hired by a Major I'd definitely move the date up. But my concern is that some have told me that if I submit my app now, without an ATP, it may just get filtered by some computer process because I don't have the minimum requirements or get tossed in the "look at next year" bin. Obviously that would delay me working there even longer and hurt more than waiting 3 months.

If it doesn't penalize me to publish now without my ATP then that changes my calculus.