Average time to interview vs job desirability
 

Good afternoon all,

What in your opinion would be the best quality job you can get within the US vs the time it takes to get an interview? I.e. regionals are fast but not the greatest (depends on what you want) and the legacies will be slower but more desirable.

Maybe it would be nice to get a thread with numbers in months to how long it would take to get an interview.

Speaking of a reasonably, but not insanely, experienced person i.e. 5000 - 6000 hours 737/777 - NO PIC time.

Rgds.

It depends on how stubborn you are. No kidding. I had military time but had no flying in 5 years, and I got a call from skywest the day after I filled out my online application. Getting an interview to an LCC took a couple months and a job fair. Getting a SWA interview took another year and a half AFTER I took the quick job first.

Basically you need to cast a wide net and take the first job offer you get that is any kind of step forward from where you are now. Then keep your applications updated, and take the NEXT offer that is another step forward. Keep doing that until you're in your happy place or you hit age 65.

Your question talked about "best". I'm at SWA and it's "best" for me now, and I suspect it'll keep being "best". If you won't be happy until you're a 777 CA and everything else is just a step on the ladder, then your "best" could take decades.

If you're not working in a flying job, your "best" job vs. time is the first realistic offer you get, period. Start building hours to sweeten up your applications to where you really want to work. To speed it up since you have no PIC time, consider applying for places with a quick CA upgrade. Many regionals offer upgrade in a year or so, and at that point you build turbine PIC time as fast as you want. Friend I know exited military with no currency and under 1000 hours. 3 years later he has over 1000 more SIC and is approaching 1000 PIC, and he'll make a GREAT hire at any major airline. He chose to stay with a regional instead of getting currency and a few hundred SIC then going to a major ULCC, because the regional offered a much quicker path to part 121 PIC time, which ought to speed up his job progression.

So... "best". Bah. Take the first job you're offered to build quality time. If there isn't a path to quick PIC there, take the NEXT job offer that would get you PIC in a reasonable time. Keep doing that until you get your interview and don't try to quantify it.

Once you're a good candidate and actually have job offers, then you can afford to be picky.

Thanks for the reply, I guess that all sums it up. Apply everywhere and see, no insane rush at the moment considering the 777 FO seat is pretty comfortable but I would like to move back across in a while!

Enjoy SWA!

To me it looks like you have a good amount of time to come back.

Get your app updated and reviews by a professional company. Then keep updating, go to job fairs or get some internal recommendations to different airlines.

No PIC needed in this environment.

Based on your post I assume you are ME3 or something like that and have a 4 year degree. I really don't know how the legacies look at foreign experience so I would really try to get that answered, to avoid the regional step. If you can upgrade where you are, you probably should, PIC is still important I believe.

The timeline depends on your competitive qualifications for the job in question, which has nothing to do with the published minimum qualifications (only regionals consistently hire at the mins).

If you're reasonably competitive you should get called within a few months to a year (immediately for regionals). If you're not in the competitive range, you won't get called at all until you become competitive (or possibly the competitive range comes to you as the pilot shortage worsens).

Delta's civilian averages for 2014-2015 - 7,600 TT, 4,100 PIC. Your definition or "reasonably experienced" is significantly below Delta's median guy back in 2014-2015.

In 2016 DL's average civilian new hire had 6,900 hrs. UA's had 7,000 hrs. In today's market most guys with that sort of TT are accumulating PIC time.

Getting more 737 or 777 FO time in the next year or two probably isn't the value you'd get from getting another type rating and upgrading to regional Captain and getting 121 TPIC time.