Of course if you did become a dentist you could change your avatar to Bill Murray in "Little Shop of Horrors".

Hey, you asked for it!

YouTube - Little Shop of Horrors - Dentist Song

Things look pretty good from mine and your vantage point. A little different view when your just starting out. My buds don't have to worry about being on the bottom of the list of possibly the next company to file BK or the next company to liquidate when your half way up the list. They don't have to worry about starting over.

I'm sure lots of people would like to swap with senior guys at FedEx but not to many would like to swap with a junior TWA guy or Indy air or any number of other airlines.

There are lots of advantages to other jobs besides the ones you and I have. One of the biggest is Options! You and I will dance with the one who brought us till the end. We don't have options.

When all is said and done, you have to worry about your family, your retirement and numerous other personal issues. You have to decide how best to take care of those concerns and if you can do that with a much more stable and lucrative career than a lot of our brethren and still be able to buy a Pitts and pull lots of G's then you should consider those options.

YMMV,

Past....

I think MD10PLT makes an excellent point, one that I missed: if buying big jet sim time or getting a type rating increases your self-confidence and comfort with the civilian flying experience, then by all means do it. I do think being confident, and comfortable during the interview is a huge advantage for any interviewee and worth the cost. And getting it along with the certificate if that's the road you want to take seems like a good deal.

I'm glad to hear others interviewed with a 737 type rating and did not have their intentions questioned.

FDXFLYR -

I've been reading in this thread about having the 737 type rating and what a prospective employer who does fly that type of aircraft might make about intentions. Is it the feeling in the industry that having multiple resumes in at different companies or having multiple plans is a bad thing for a person?

USMCFLYR

Hi USMCFLYR,

No, not at all. I think everyone assumes pilots have applications out with a lot of different airlines. My initial comment was based upon advice I was given when I was making the move from military to civilian flying and I was asking the same question: "maybe having a type rating would improve my chances of getting a job?" It's just that in our company, having a type rating is not a requirement and there was a time (maybe not so much anymore) when interviewers would really grill a candidate about their career goals to try to prevent spending a lot of money on hiring and training costs on a new hire who intends to leave for another airline when the opportunity presents itself. It would be difficult to say that FedEx or UPS are your number one choice if you show up with a 737 type rating without time in the aircraft. The conclusion being that you obviously spent big bucks for a rating for some reason and since neither FedEx nor UPS operate that airplane and assuming people don't go around throwing money at type ratings, then maybe an airline that requires a type rating (SWA?) is the guy's real goal.

But it would be easily explained (if asked, but it sounds from other posters that it isn't being asked now) as leaving your options open, wanting to get some big jet experience or just increasing ones' comfort factor in the sim.

Well it did almost cost my dad his marriage. Maybe there is more to it? Never thought of the porn angle with the chair and everything....

Real men don't sweat the small stuff.

Its been a few years now, but I had the 737 type, no time in the jet, and was in the pool at SW when I interviewed at FedEx. I was prepared to talk about it, it never came up. FedEx is pretty confident that if you get hired here you will likely stick around. If not, they won't have any trouble filling the spot.

Things could have changed, but I wouldn't not get the type because I thought FedEx wouldn't hire me because of it.

FJ

I was worked over by HR for having that type and no time. They know why you have it.

They asked me if I interviewed there...etc.

I would guess the military guys are much better off vs me. They are able to justify VA benefits paying for it vs me shelling out cash for it.

Obviously, they were not that concerned with it, because they hired me anyways.