When the interviewer has a well qualified military candidate, I wonder how the question of "staying or bailing" is presented and how it is convincingly answered. Or do they even care?

A recruiter's job is to get people in the door, not keep people. They know the deal. And if they don't hire a mil dude bc he's mil and they are afraid he/she will get sucked up quickly by a better airline, that's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

They never asked... I'm fairly certain they know they are going to make back the training cost within the 6 months or so (minimum) that it takes you to get picked up at your career airline. I made the leap after almost 4 years out of cockpit -- paid off after flying a little over a year at a regional. Good luck friends.

Not to mention how many guys in a similar circumstance will take the same leap of faith after a success story.

I worked with a military guy who only wanted to work at Alaska. He spent less than 2 years in the regionals. I don't know how much time he had, but he was always taking about going to events that Alaska attended.

When we interviewed with Republic they told us they know most folks want to move to a major, and that they were OK with that. I had another interview and I asked them about the business model WRT high turnover. Response was "it works". I have lots of hours but lack currency, and the regionals are OK with that. I'm very excited about getting back in the cockpit. Almost every airline is hiring, which rarely happens. Great time to be a pilot!

That's valid, and in the calculus for sure. Most of my research is going into weighing the slightly slower rate of gaining hours at a fractional vice the QOL issues of commuting to a regional. I can drive to a NJ base as if it were an every morning drive to work; but also have a few options (depending on the regional) for direct flights to commute.

My problem is - I don't know what I don't know. And what I don't know about regional 121 life is somewhere around "everything." :D

At several of my regional interviews, they basically said, "we know you'll be leaving soon, we appreciate the time and experience you're bringing to our company, and we'd love it if you could give us a year to recoup our training costs invested in you."

No hard feelings from the recruiting/interviewing team at all, in fact quite the opposite.

I hear you on the "I don't know what I don't know"! I've been talking to all my military friends who have made this leap and have gotten plucked out by a major fairly quickly. I've picked their brains to probably an annoying state. As far as commuting goes, that's tough and I'm a bit scared to find out how that will go. Who knows where you'd get based but it is a part of that leap of faith we're all taking on this. Then, if we get picked up by a major, we'll probably commute again for a while until we figure the rest of our lives out :p

Why is it ok to be hired at regional with "low time" or "lack of currency" but not a major? Especially for a mil guy. What's the difference? Is it not the same job? Same mainline passengers, 90% of which haven't the slightest clue that they aren't even on a mainline jet. In the same airspace. Same weather. Same airports. Same controllers. Same everything. I would love to hear the logic.