I'm afraid I must agree with diver and lump. I'm in Instrument ground with those two and just starting Step IVA, and when I first started here in September I had resolved to do my CFI here and more importantly, instruct here. But the waiting list that was supposedly shrinking only keeps growing, the burnished image of CIME students being able to transition seemlessly from Step V to CFI to instructing has now tarnished incredibly.
If I had to do over again, or more realistically, advise someone else about training, I would tell them to get all their basic ratings, the CIME, elsewhere at a good FBO or at a more resonably priced though less reputed school like ATP or one of the smaller 141 schools. And then, if they really want to overpay for the CFI (no matter how good the training is, that's a pretty penny with no guarantee of a job and such a long waiting list), I would recommend doing the CFI at FSI.
I think I need to reinforce the feeling of one of the current FSI IPs that he posted on another thread a few weeks back, FlightSafety needs to restructure same as most air carriers are doing. You don't raise prices when times are bad, you cut them. And they really need to put a cap on how long instructors can continue here when times are bad.
They should retain a select few exceptionally good instructors and restrict the rest to maybe a 1000 hour contract (I'm being generous over the current 800). Most students like yours truly expect to be able to instruct at the same place they learned, especially when that place is FSI. I sympathize with the plight of the squatters among the IPs, but some of them just want to stay here indefinitely until they build up a magic number of hours that will get them in the door with a target company, say, NetJets (2500TT) and that just shatters all hopes of current and prospective students, which will only hurt the IPs and FSI in terms of enrollment.
For my part, I am considering getting all three CFI ratings for half the cost at ATP or another 141 school then trying my chances somewhere in the lower 48. I'd love to come back and instruct at FSI, but of course even qualified newly minted CFI grads from FSI are falling through the cracks in the selection process, so I know I woudn't even have a shot at interviewing if I get the CFI ticket elsewhere.
I was one of those people who got a liberal arts degree and chose FSI over grad school, which I believe is one of the things FSI is now trying to officially do to market itself. Well, if things don't improve in terms of flow through, then I would ward off those poor, confused chaps from considering this place as an option unless they are loaded.
I know this place is the best money can buy, at least in the States, but I don't want to be on food stamps and a bachelor repaying loans on a Walmart job until I'm 40. This is especially a concern for those of us who don't have affluent relatives or inheritances/savings or the GI Bill paying for a big chunk of our training expense.
Those people aren't nearly in as deep as fully self-financed students like me. Here's hoping things get better or at least more normal sooner rather than later. Hope I haven't offended, this was a heartfelt critique of our school. We have ardent devotees like Chunk and Baronman and the rest of us who freak out when we think of those loan payments coming due.