Considering leaving the profession for good, could use advice

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say a jump to somewhere you don’t want to hang your hat is actually gonna slow your progress towards your goal significantly. Currently your biggest issue is likely job stability unfortunately and the only way past that is time, which I understand is currently painful. While I agree the last 3 years are an anomaly, I think the current hiring market today is also an anomaly. I think realistically we settle in somewhere in the middle, at least for the next 3-5 years. I’m not sure I’d want another job hop on my resume if and when things start opening up.
 
Hiboglossi said:
With all due respect, this is bad advice. In general, it's always best to take the first opportunity to escape the regionals, since opportunities for forward career progress don't come along every day, or even every decade. But that's especially true now that the doors of pilot hiring have slammed shut (or at least nearly shut) at many of the legacies.

That call from your first choice of permanent home may not come for years if it comes at all; and if it never comes, whatever else you can say about ATI, it's a better permanent home than any regional. And when the legacies are hiring I suspect it's easier to get hired at them with a type rating that several of them operate than as yet another regional pilot desperate to escape.
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Yes, usually the first escape is the best path, but in the OPs situation I’m not so sure that’s the case.
 
Autothrust Blue said:
Hell, Beef just told you what a junior 737 schedule’s like at the Eskimo
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🦈💜 said:
Yep, and it's gross. Sounds pretty familiar. However, I have other CA friends at Alaska who are really happy with their lot in life and they're not a ton more senior. And their schedules all look ok to me. I don't doubt Beefy, and I know there are some issues at his shop rn, but at the end of the day if I was flying this schedule for Alaska, I'd be much more ok with it.
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FWIW as a data point, he's in SEA and feeling the suck, other bases are flying way less on reserve. I'm 92% in base/seat and will credit 97 hours for June.

4 nights away from home. (picked up a two day on days off and a premium pay turn, converted from long call to short call 4 times)

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Skåning said:
FWIW as a data point, he's in SEA and feeling the suck, other bases are flying way less on reserve. I'm 92% in base/seat and will credit 97 hours for June.

4 nights away from home. (picked up a two day on days off and a premium pay turn, converted from long call to short call 4 times)

View attachment 78523
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Yeah I know my cushy schedule isn’t average, but after a quick glance at reserve reports he may be THE most utilized reserve in the company for June. Some of it’s luck but he’s also choosing to bid early AM short call RAPs which is a highly utilized zone, especially in Seattle.
 
word302 said:
Yeah I know my cushy schedule isn’t average, but after a quick glance at reserve reports he may be THE most utilized reserve in the company for June. Some of it’s luck but he’s also choosing to bid early AM short call RAPs which is a highly utilized zone, especially in Seattle.
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I was once advised I was *the* CRJ Captain reserve east of the Rockies for the whole darned airline one fine morning.

Yes, the, singular!
 
Hiboglossi said:
The Pandemic may have been a black swan event in general, but for airline pilots in the USA it absolutely wasn't, unless you were at TSA, Compass, ExpressJet, Miami Air, or one of a few other airlines that went out of business before the bailouts were issued. If anything, the Pandemic ended up being a boon for many pilots' careers, since it lead to so many early retirements and then rapid career advancement for many in order to replace those retirees.
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You left out, "and that's why I believe 2024 will be a red wave."
 
BEEF SUPREME said:
Yeah but sometimes things happen that are way outside of your control. Like a door popping off an aircraft you flew two weeks prior. Creating like the 15th "once a career" black swan event you've gotten to experience firsthand. Your employer stops hiring. You're stuck at the bottom of the seniority list. Downgrades are threatened multiple times. All the while a merger is looming, that if combined with a downgrade could result in career stagnation of epic proportions.

Sometimes it's OK to say that this is just another job, bad things happen to really good people and maybe life would have been better if you'd done something different with your life.
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Brother I’ve spent literally 100% of my career after 9/11/2001 balancing “Oh god, what’s next? It’s gotten too quiet… TOO good, something bad is around the corner!” with “enjoy the moment, it goes fast”

The threat of furloughs, been through a revoked medical, wrestling matches with the FAA on two occasions, been threatened with termination at least three times, maybe four, a strike, 54%-plus pay cuts, friends committing suicide from the pressures during the darker days of the airline business, pension dissolution, potential downgrades (largely stayed senior so I just moved backwards for the most part), couch-surfed, failed my comapny new hire oral for really suspicious reasons,, base closures, accidents, terrorist attacks, having a friend get his throat cut and his plane pummeling into the Pentagon during 9/11, two or three oil-spiking wars, a merger, threatened predatory acquisition by a megalomaniac boozy CEO, etc etc etc, I’ve eaten my fill of poop sandwiches and I’ve shared my journey with everyone publicly so I’m probably a poor example to highlight as someone with unscathed career path.

I just survived the challenges thrown at me, didn’t take it personal and kept moving forward. Attitude isn’t circumstance of your condition, attitude is a choice you make on a daily basis.

Ehh, I’m going to go hit the breakfast buffet as my fingers are tired of preaching, plus no one’s listening anyway. Sunny out! :)
 
CoffeeIcePapers said:
I hope this thread is a lesson to people considering a direct entry captain position at a regional. I had a better time flying illegal 24/7 on demand 135 than she is doing this job.
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Yes and no. There’s definitely some suck associated with working at a regional. But I’d have punched a baby to have her schedule and paycheck when I was at a regional. It sounds to me that OPs lifestyle is simply incompatible with 121 life.
 
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