Oh boy.... You have brought a can of worms with this post! Any time someone asks whether or not ATP is a good idea, its a battle-royal on these forums.
There is A LOT of info about ATP on here.... Search through the forums and you will probably find everything you are looking for, and some things you aren't.
Here is some unbaised information as I have trained with a local FBO (PPL in 2010) and ATP (Career pilot program 2/13 - 10/13).
As I say to so many others.... There isn't a "right or wrong decision." It is what works best for you. I planned for two years before I started ATP. I explored every option. I toured several schools and looked into the small FBO option. For me, ATP was the only way for several reasons: 1. Financing availablty. 2. Speed of the program. 3. Ability to keep my gov't job (I did the self-paced program). 3. Location (I went to ATP RIC which is an hours drive from home for me). 4. Multi time I would receive.
In my planning and research, I found it hard to find financing for a similar program that also got you done as quickly, and I found no other programs flexible enough to allow me to stay home with my new wife and keep my gov't job part-time. But thats why it worked for me. Everyone has different circumstances.
Above all, you need to rigerously look at your current and future finances if you do this, especially with ATP. I will not lie.... It definitely IS NOT the most cost effective way to get all of your necessary ratings. But if you want to ride the hiring wave at the regionals and get pushed up quick, then you need to get your ratings quickly. The sooner you're in an airline, the better. The more pilots hired after you, the better protection from furlough you have down the road. I can tell you that you will likely not get done as quicky anywhere else.
In terms of quality of training.... There are a TON of opinions on this. I truely believe it doesn't matter where you train; there are two main factors that will directly affect how "good" your training is: 1. Your personal work ethic. 2. Your instructor's personal work ethic.
ATP is a VERY fast program when you put it in perspective. You get a lot of ratings quickly, and for a zero experience guy like yourself, you will be required to learn (eventually to the point of instructor profieciency) an incomprehensible amount of information. A lot of it is simple info.... But a lot is not. Your have to work you a$$ off non-stop. Its no joke. But it is doable and a lot of it is fun too.
On the other side of it, a lot does depend on your instructor. They have to be motivated to make a good pilot, not just to get to 1500 hours. You will find good and bad instructors at ATP and just about every other flight school in the country. Just because someone instructs for ATP doesn't mean you will get bad instruction.... so don't listen to that school of thought. Personally, my instructor at RIC was awesome. He was very motivated to make the best possible pilots he could. We got more ground school than we could handle at times and he ALWAYS made himself available to us. He trained us to standards well above the PTS and would spend a lot of time making sure we were more than ready. The other two instructors at the RIC location are the same way. They are great. To be completely honest, my ATP instructor was better than my PPL instructor from the small FBO.... and my PPL instructor was very, very good. That being said, there are ATP instructors out there that aren't like this. So if you do go to ATP, and you get assigned an instructor who isn't cutting it, report it to admin immediately and get reassigned. Have valid reasons for requesting reassignment and they will give it to you. You're not guaranteed a good or bad instructor at any school. Know that going in.
In terms of the guaranteed instructor job: You are offered a position if you meet the following requirements: You have no more than 2 or 3 checkride failures throughout the program. You are a "good student" with no recurring issues. You are able to work 7 days a week and relocate to your assigned training center. You are able to pass the Instructor Standardization Course in Jacksonville Florida. If you can do all that.... then yes, you get an instructor job with ATP. They will give you a Instructor Standardization date in Florida very shortly after you finish the program, usually within the first week or two. So it is a fairly quick transition.
Either way you go, you need to have all available information known before you go. Do your research. Take a good hard look at your finances.... Like I said, ATP isn't cheap (its also NOT the most expensive.... i.e. Aeroism Academy, Flight Safety, Phoenix East... or God forbid a degree program at ER or ND....)
Don't listen to all the negatives on here. There are a lot of people who hate ATP for various reasons. But the truth is that it DOES work for a lot of people. You have to be motivated and work very hard. You'll get out of it what you put in it...that is true for any program.
If you want detailed info on the program, look at my running experience blog called "New Student/Running Experience". That will give you a good picture of what the training is like (at least at RIC).
Lastly, in terms of recommending a location... I would HIGHLY recommend the Richmond, VA location. They have excellent instructors there. You won't get better instructors anywhere else. I can't speak for other locations as I didn't train at them.
Good Luck.
Mike
