WillFlyFoCookie
On Wisconsin
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2004
- Posts
- 104
Of all places I'm turning to Flightinfo for advice on my career! I'm just at somewhat of a stalemate right now and usually have a hard time deciding what's the best career path for me. Here goes:
I currently work at a very small 121 company and live close to where I'm based. I'm the typical relatively young and relatively starving FO. In about a month I'll be in upgrade which won't pay much more (about $7 per hour) but I'll be getting that all important turbine PIC. It'll be long days and gone often but I will be in the left seat which I've been craving for quite a while. I really like the people that I get to work with and the company in the end has treated me great. The experience has been everything I've ever asked it to be. However I don't really see the pay and benefits ever being enough to sustain me for my whole career. If I stayed here, my hope in a few years would be to eventually go to a place like Southwest.
On the other hand I have this job offer from Netjets. I would start before the TA is ratified. I like the new pay and really think that I could live off of it for the duration of my career. Even the FO pay would be just fine for quite a while. I looks like I would be grandfathered in with the TA and be able to do the home basing which would certainly improve my quality of life. I would almost certainly spend more days at home which would be great as well. I do like the idea of the flying that Netjets does: not going the same place all the time, greater interaction with the customer, and much better resources available to you.
So those are my choices. Where I'm at we may grow and get bigger equipment and better pay. What I'd miss the most would be getting in the left seat (and the great people). There's also the distinct possibility that we could go out of business, we certainly haven't made any money in over 4 years. If I go to Netjets, I really would be saying "goodbye forever" to being an airline pilot. Not that the being an airline pilot is nearly as great as most of friends and family seem to think. Also it looks like at Netjets the left seat would be quite a few years down the road.
So I'll stop rambling and begin to hopefully recieve some of that expert feedback from all my peers on Flightinfo!
I currently work at a very small 121 company and live close to where I'm based. I'm the typical relatively young and relatively starving FO. In about a month I'll be in upgrade which won't pay much more (about $7 per hour) but I'll be getting that all important turbine PIC. It'll be long days and gone often but I will be in the left seat which I've been craving for quite a while. I really like the people that I get to work with and the company in the end has treated me great. The experience has been everything I've ever asked it to be. However I don't really see the pay and benefits ever being enough to sustain me for my whole career. If I stayed here, my hope in a few years would be to eventually go to a place like Southwest.
On the other hand I have this job offer from Netjets. I would start before the TA is ratified. I like the new pay and really think that I could live off of it for the duration of my career. Even the FO pay would be just fine for quite a while. I looks like I would be grandfathered in with the TA and be able to do the home basing which would certainly improve my quality of life. I would almost certainly spend more days at home which would be great as well. I do like the idea of the flying that Netjets does: not going the same place all the time, greater interaction with the customer, and much better resources available to you.
So those are my choices. Where I'm at we may grow and get bigger equipment and better pay. What I'd miss the most would be getting in the left seat (and the great people). There's also the distinct possibility that we could go out of business, we certainly haven't made any money in over 4 years. If I go to Netjets, I really would be saying "goodbye forever" to being an airline pilot. Not that the being an airline pilot is nearly as great as most of friends and family seem to think. Also it looks like at Netjets the left seat would be quite a few years down the road.
So I'll stop rambling and begin to hopefully recieve some of that expert feedback from all my peers on Flightinfo!