scrtlvrby, I am in the exact same situation as you are. Do some more reading and talk to your friends that are flying 121 if you can. I also work at a school where getting multi time is nearly impossible. I am at about 1400/96. I will have my 100 hours of multi in a few days. I got an interview offer from PSA four days ago and can't decide if I even want to reply to it. This hesitation to work for crappy wages and in crappy work conditions seems to be prevalent in non-121 pilots over 500TT. I currently make one of the best CFI salaries in the country and the job is very relaxed and comfy. I get a lot of time off and still collect the same amount of money at the end of the month whether I work or not. The only problem is that the pay STILL isn't much, and it's a dead end job with no upward movement available. The only way I could work for PSA would be to commute and I am NOT doing that for a company that is known to have the worst reserve rules in the industry. This may be naive, but I believe pilots like us (with a little more multi time) are going to be able to be picky about what companies we want to work for in the next couple years. Personally, the only reason I want to leave my current job is to be closer to family in ORD. I'm holding out for Eagle/ASA-ExJet/Skywest, etc. for that base opportunity. So I can at least sit reserve in base without having to pay for living arrangements. EVERYONE says don't commute. I tend to take advice if its the same story coming from multiple sources. So, in the meantime its gonna be ramen and cheap beer for me. Until I get the company I want, or there's some major changes in work rules and pay, I'll keep plugging away at flight instruction, working 15-20 hour weeks, and getting paid for 40. I'd love to fly a jet, or anything larger than a 182 for that matter. I'd even be willing to take a slight pay cut to do it. Taking a $10,000+ first year pay cut is daunting to say the least, but it gets better over time. What doesn't seem to get better is job security (which I have a boat load of), working conditions and rules, commuting, base closures, furloughs, quality of life, sleeping in your own bed, crapping on your own toilet, that kind of stuff. I wish you the best of luck in making your decisions about who to work for, but I think we will be able to pick and choose in the near future.

 

Well put I think holding out is the right thing to do in my opinion.