I have sent my stuff into alot of places over the past year if I had the mins or not (mostly not). I have gotten calls for interviews with places I had no idea I even sent my stuff to. Just send your stuff everywhere and see what happens!

Wow...Minimums for hire at the Regional level have changed...15 years ago the low time guy in my class at Eagle was 3500TT...And he had about 1000 in a King Air...Times have changed

I got on with Eagle back in 2000 with 1300 TT and I was by far the low time guy. But after those bridge programs started we started seeing people with 500 TT and below.

Sure, take a shot and apply everywhere. Have you also considered some of the freight 135 places? You'll usually have a better chance to see the left seat of a turbine more quickly than at a regional. A few that quickly come to mind are Air Cargo Carriers, Mountain Air Cargo, Empire Airlines, Ameriflight, Airnet and Phoenix Air (and NOT Keylime).

Also I would encourage you to finish up your 4 year degree sooner than later in something besides aviation. If nothing else it'll help you have a side job to supplement your earnings.

thanks for all the ideas guys, im currently pretty happy in my cfi job and am getting good hours and making ok money, so i'm not desperate to get hired by a regional... but it would be good to see what's out there and maybe how much more i need to be competititve, so i may just go ahead and send resumes to everyone...

one more point to question...

does anyone know if age is a big factor?? i would have thought that young guys might have been more attractive to regionals and others looking for new hires. a fellow cfi went for an interview and the interviewer told him when he'd been unsuccessful that despite the fact that he had the minimums well and truly met, his age of 22 set him back a bit, and the older guys about 30-35 yrs of age were given the jobs.

is this a common issue people find?? just curious

Tell your friend he is a liar - to his face. Interviewers know the stuff they are allowed to say here in the US. If this were/is true, your friend should be on the phone with a lawyer ASAP! This is illegal here in the United States (I'm assuming it happened here). Not only that, but at almost any interview, they will never discuss WHY you were not hired! You will get a letter in the mail (or not hear anything at all).

Age is not a hinderence, however if this person didn't act very mature during the interview he would not have been hired, so maybe they assumed it was their age. In my regional class guys ranged in age from 21 to 52. I myself was 24. Age has nothing to do with it, IMO. Attitude does.

FWIW, I was born in penrith, outside sydney. I was looking at Qantas but I found I'd have to convert my FAA certs at a pretty big expense, so I pretty much wrote that off.

Most of the 600 hour guys are from the academies that have agreements with the airlines, I never hear much mom and pop flight school CFIs getting on with low hours. Anyways as far as college it's not really necessary for the regional and pr135 level but most have college experience anyways.