Originally Posted by rickair7777

Have no idea about Europe, this board is mostly US. You'd have to ask on pprune.org for that. Anything you hear about overseas airlines mosr likely DOES NOT apply in the US, and vice versa

In the US there's no hours/age criteria, that would be rather discriminatory and rather obviously so.

A few majors may consider "career trajectory", where they expect you to keep moving up the lader on a certain timeline. This is nothing more than a work-around to allow age discrimination, it allows them to pass over an entire generation of older pilots who got stuck at the regionals during the lost decade and therefore did not "career progress" through little fault of their own.

But that would not apply to a career changer who starts later in life but moves up quickly (you will in today's climate).

If you're looking at the top tier majors, you'll probably need at least 2-3k+ 121 TPIC and 5k+ TT (LCA or other 121 instructor jobs will help a great deal).

But by all means apply to all majors as soon as you meet the mins, and keep the apps updated. You never when they might randomly pull your name out of the hat. Be prepared for an interview if you have apps out.