I have never told anyone to stay away from airlines.
1) I have told people not to fly for free.
2) I have told people not to "sell out" to airlines.
3) I have told people that being an airline pilot is a job like anything else.
If you look over my posts you will see that all my "stay away" statements are prefaced with IF.
If you can't handle being away from home, no planning of your future more than the next 30 days, cheap hotels, low pay for several years, etc then you may want to consider another career.
Obviously there is some need for airline pilots, although the supply is currently far greater than the demand!
I have interviewed 17 times with 10 yes letters. I understand this is above average. Most people I talk to average around 25% success rate.
This seminar is for those who are committed to a professional aviation career, in particular the airlines. I spend the first day talking about the resume.
Day 1:
How to write a pilot resume
How to get it to the right person
How to meet the right people
How to treat those people you meet
How to maintain relationships in the industry
Pitfalls and traps to avoid.
Day 2 is the interview
We set up a video camera and do mock (and occasionally real!) interviews with airline pilots who have experience doing interviews. One of my favorite guys to bring in is Scott Sindelar from SW, he asks some of the toughest questions! The video is then picked apart, as well as the interviewee. This will be the toughest interview you ever have I promise!
I email or snail-mail the digitized video to the pilot if he or she wants it.
So far we are 14 for 22 and I haven't heard from the other 8 recently.
I've been accused of doing this to make money. Well yeah! Of course I do it to make money! Do I get rich? NO. The largest group I've had so far is 9, and one of those was a return customer so he only paid $100. New guys pay $150 and that includes lunch both days. I make enough with 7 people to justify spending two days of my time, renting a conference room, and buying lunch.
Of course someday I hope to have 50 people in a big room and walk away with a couple grand. But right now we're talking about a profit of a couple hundred. I hope this is not evil in a free enterprise society!
Braidkid, one thing that gets lost in posting on a forum is a sense of humor. A lot of times what I say in person is very funny, but when it is written down it sounds sarcastic and negative. I have this little standup comedian hiding inside of me trying to get out and sometimes he evades my clutches.
I look back on a successful airline career (so far) and I would not miss it for the world. Yeah I starved for 5 years but I was single and not worried about it. BE1900 captain at Mesa let me start paying off some debt, and CRJ captain really helped clear it all. Of course, going back to FO at Midway didn't help and 9-11 kiboshed my finances fairly bad. Now I have my own business going and I see it is the way to go.
I am using knowledge that I gained in my airline career, however, and it's hard to put a price tag on experience.
If you want me to help you get hired as a professional pilot, I'm here. Just be sure that's what you really want to do, because when times get tough I don't want to hear the complaints!!!! (That's one of those humor attempts again.)