I guess it's simple enough to say I don't agree with you guys regarding RJ programs, and I doubt I ever will for that matter.
During the heyday of hiring 250 hour wonders, RJ programs were sold as a way to get your foot in the door without instructing, or without towing banners, or without building some experience in any other way. At the time, some guys were quite literally passing their commercial checkrides and within days they were sitting in ground school at a part 121 carrier. These programs circumvented actual experience and put in its place a hallow promise that couldn't be kept; all you need to do is pass the interview, pass training and then get on the line, then you can get some real experience.
But this approach cheapens the position of being a first officer at any level. You are, fundamentally, a required crew member who is expected to be able to bring a certain depth of knowledge and experience to the position. These RJ courses did nothing to help with the professional development of people who would become our colleagues.
Read that phrase again; professional development. It's a concept that is often given little more than window dressing in this industry when times are moving quickly.
At this point in the industry, 2 years after the country's near economic collapse, folks have different opinions. To them, a $30,000 course that guarantees an interview with Pinnacle may seem acceptable. Why wouldn't it be? Things are moving slow, and this is expensive anyway, so what's another $30,000 when it's spent on "professional development" that will help you get your foot in the door?
The problem is that it's little more than window dressing, and develops nothing but the ability to play monkey see, monkey do. To wit, very little of this job is flying a picture perfect V1 cut or single engine ILS approach.
No, the professional development that is necessary in this industry, as in all industries, can't be bought. Outside of aviation circles people make cracks about those that are "highly educated" (masters/professional degrees) with no experience to correlate their education to the real world. These people are certainly qualified in a technical sense, but to many they are just as useless as any other new hire. Employers understand this with the realization that those with higher levels of education may be more trainable, but they are likely not superior to other candidates when it comes to skill sets.
Sadly, I believe this has been lost on us. We are, I believe fundamentally, goal oriented people, and thus if we achieve the goal that we set out to obtain, then the costs are justified in our own minds.
But they are not. The true cost to PFJ, RJ programs or anything other than a structured training regimen that teaches the fundamentals and gives us the tools necessary to not only survive in the cockpit, but grow during periods of building experience, is that of our professional discipline, respect and ability to develop ourselves as professionals.
There are guys at Gulfstream that did not PFJ. Those guys simply took a job that did what they needed any job to do; pay the bills. Truth be told the PFJ program went away a while ago if I remember correctly, but it was so muted that most of us probably didn't realize it. JetU is also but a memory to many of us.
But in the same way that J4J, the flow down at Beagle any many other roadblocks in our professional carrer are little more than memories at this point, without remembering them we are truly damned to repeat them.
I believe RJ programs fit into that category; things we need to remember because of the harm that they do to us as professionals. JetU might be gone, but somebody else will come up with a fantastic way to both steal our money and our integrity in order to "get ahead". I contend that these programs do not put us ahead, they put us behind.
Personal opinion, of course.
