Keeping Relationship With Current Employer?
 

I'm currently working for a regional airline in St. Louis, MO as a flight line mechanic. On my days off I'm working towards the commercial/multi ticket, and getting rather close to finishing. The flight school has expressed interest in hiring me as a CFI, so that is also on my training list.

My question is when I am all done with training and ready to do some CFI work, should I leave my current position and focus solely on flying, or keep that relationship and hope it gets me in the right seat a little quicker? What would a hiring board appreciate more? Hiring a current employee, or hiring a former employee that left to prepare for said position?

On an unrelated note, I've been wondering how most corporate guys begin their career? When I browse the job boards most of the corporate gigs are for captains with type, and 5000+. When you see the rare FO position available they are still way out of reach for a low time pilot like myself. Where do these guys start? It seems like the stepping stone for flying jets is the regional airlines. But where are you ever supposed to get a type rating, or build time in these planes if you are never eligible to fly that first job? Is there any way around the regionals when starting your career on corporate side? I know very little about Flight Safety, but I see it as a flight school where you can buy your type and a few hours in a sim? Don't even want to know the cost of that, especially after paying for CPL/ME/CFI all out of pocket.

If you can make good progress and keep your day job and benefits, that's always a good thing. If you have spouse/kids that can be hard, but if you're single you can make a good go of it.

A current employee will usually have better odds than an ex-employee. An ex-employee with a good record will have better odds than someone off the street.

Most people break into corporate based on who they know...you have to hang out at the right kind of airport and network. You generally start out doing occasional pay-per-day freelance gigs to cover for the regular pilot who is unavailable. In some cases the boss only employs one pilot full-time and then free-lances the right seat for every mission. You generally will need to buy a type in a citation, or start in something which doesn't require a type. You'll probably need 1000 turbine hours and a type before you can start getting into the decent jobs.

My schedule for the airline works out well with my own training. Every day I work I get a day off. When it comes to CFI work it wouldn't be quite as ideal. I have Sunday off each week so little or no time in the book that day. It's possible that I only log 10-15 hours per week. Hiring is picking up and 2012 seems like the time to be ready and applying. Do you think it would be a wrong move to introduce myself to the Chief Pilot and ask his opinion? I see him on the ramp a few times a month.

By all means introduce yourself to the Chief Pilot. It's good for him to know who you are when it comes time to start hiring people. Hopefully you come to work for AX and not those G7 losers :D But either way, good luck, let me know if I can help.

Haha, yeah I try to stay away from all of the G7 hating... I would think by now that topic would have fizzled out. But, there is a definite stigma that people have to "accept" before flying there. I doubt anyone goes in without reading the posts here, and that just seems sketchy. I figure the 3 airlines under the TSH umbrella are my best bet for my first flying job though. Mr. Z is the one I was referring to seeing anyway, so AX is absolutely on my mind. About 80% of my Mx knowledge is on the 145 too, so would probably be a better transition.

Edit: I think I may have been misinformed on who this person is I see on the ramp from time to time.

Tall? Bald? Kind of lanky? Yeah, that's RZ. He now has the responsibility of doing revisions on the aircraft and the like that used to be delegated to his underlings, before their positions got phased out. He's the only TSH CP I know of that goes down to the ramp on a regular basis. Could be wrong though, I don't have a clue what the G7 CP looks like.

Anyway, think about Compass. That might be a more stable place to go. Although, that could all change by the time you're ready to get hired.

Haha, yeah that's him. Compass would probably be a good place to start, thought I would prefer to be based in STL. Their E175's are nice! We had one parked in our hangar not too long ago. I'm also curious to see where the MRJ's will end up.

Supposedly the first 10 are to end up at Trans States... if Hulas can secure a contract with one of the Legacies for us to fly'em. Sadly, it wouldn't surprise me to see them end up at GoJet though, since the only difference would be flight crew compensation, which is considerably cheaper at G7.