Leaving a job after 4 months?
 

Hey guys,

I want to make sure I'm not giving the wrong advice. Does it look bad if you've only been at a job (a regional in this case) for four months only to jump over to another regional?

In the 91 world that might not look so hot (small community) but I don't know how it works in the 121 world (I only spent a small amount of time in 121 regional), so I figure I'd ask.

Thanks.

Why the move?

The airline he wants to go to has a base where his home is and the flying is mostly out west as opposed to east. He's not under a TA, but imho it's bad form to leave after they've gone through the expense of training etc. I would think that would raise some eyebrows at an interview when he moves on to somewhere better like a mainline or whatever. I can see moving for the sake of going from a regional to a major but skipping from one regional to another in such a short amount of time seems like it would stir up some unwanted attention.

That's just my opinion though.

Does he already have an offer from the other regional? If not, he still has to pass the interview for the other regional. If and only if he gets offered a class date, he has a decision to make and be able to come up with a reasonable response as to why he switched. Pilots move from one regional to another all the time. As long as he can substantiate why he is making the move in future interviews, it is okay in my opinion.

As long as you're able to give a good answer in an interview for making the move it probably won't affect anything down the road. Mainline recruiters are probably smart enough to know you're not going anywhere for a while once you get hired there.

What base does he want? The west coast bases are usually pretty senior.

He interviewed with them and was offered a class. I guess in today's world where regionals are hurting for pilots it may not be that uncommon. I hope that the place he's leaving doesn't blackball him (he's going to give them plenty of notice). I don't know if that goes on anymore.

He's hoping to get near LAX - he knows that a stretch.. but he's in ORD atm.

Does he always talk about himself in the third person?

Haven't read any of the thread, have you?

I say "go for it".

In '06 there were a lot of guys at TSA who left as soon as they finished IOE for CHQ, SKW, etc. Trans States was hiring guys at less minimums than the others at the time, but if you had prior 121 experience, the hours weren't a concern and the other reigonals were scooping guys up.

While moving from one company to the majors is always the goal, there's never any guarantee that it will happen within the next six months to a year. This guy could find himself sitting at the same company for the next decade, and if being closer to his home will improve his QOL it makes perfect sense to make the jump. While it's a lateral move, and all regionals stink, it makes much more sense to do it while you're already on 1st year pay, than to hang out there for another 6 months to a year when you're about to start making more money and then hop....It stinks to prolong 1st year pay for longer than a year, but it'd be even worse to give up the minor salary increases and go BACK to first year pay down the line.