The Dreaded Training Contract

[Way2Broke]

You can still interview and get hired somewhere and just swim in the pool until the contract is over.

 

[CelticCitation]

I predict he'll be paying off his training contract the same way he'll pay off his PFT student loans- night manager at a call center. Aviation quickly burns out the grass is greener types.

 

[bertengineer]

You are talking about getting seniority, but keep in mind that flight hours still are an important factor in getting the eventual upgrade. You might be with a regional for two years, but you will not have the numbers to upgrade, especially if the CAPT mins are 3000 hours. (9E)
If you are flying for AirNet, oh sorry, I mean for another 135 company, you are better off staying there for the 7 months and getting the potential 500 hours multi single pilot IFR (Unless you are getting the 208 which amounts to nothing!). If the guys that are flying the 208 think that the time will get them into FedEx because it is turbine, Think again.
Good luck on your decision. Also, when you go to training it will be two months before you start sitting reserve where you may only fly 30-40 hours a month away from home and commuting all of the time, unless you live in base.
Just wanted to give you something to think about before dumping the job you are at. Honestly I have been down that road, and I should have stayed to get all of the hours!

 

[Photoflight]

the nice thing about a contract is if you wanna leave then pay up and no hard feelings.

Also it might depend what state your in but I believe training contracts are illegal in many states and aren't worth the paper they're written on.

 

[avbug]

Jpilot, if I were hiring and it came down to a person who was obligated financially to his/her current employer, I wouldn't hesitate to pay off a promissory note to bring on the person I wanted.

You'd be in the minority...probably the reason you're not doing the hiring. Why spend money to pay off a pilots prior obligations...the obligations the pilot isn't willing to stand by after committing to them...to bring him on where he will likely do the same thing to you?

More than a few times I have had a good offer come up when I've been with an employer less than a year. Contract or not, if I shook hands and said I'd stay, I stay. I'll turn down that better offer because it's a matter of honor, and ethical integrity. Too little of that out there today.

Hiring a pilot who's breaking contract is like having an affair with a married person. You know the person is cheating. You know they are failing their single most important obligation in life, and yet you're willing to climb into bed with them anyway. Stupidity has it's limits. Most employers are smart enough to know that if you'll break a deal with another company to come to work, you'll do it again.

Integrity. Look it up.

 

[Heavy Set]

Stay for the full year and build your time. It is better to not burn bridges in this industry - that can come back to haunt you real fast...

 

[FlyingMoose]

One thng I notice is that some of the posters seem to have the opinion that signing a training contract is synonymous with a moral or ethical agreement/obligation to stay for that period of time. It's not IMHO, you are only agreeing to pay back training costs (or whatever is noted in the contract) if you leave during the term.

That being said, There is still two sides to the issue. I have always felt that any company that needs to use training contracts either is not financially responsible, not good at hiring the right employees, or is not a great place to work (salary, QOL, etc.) There is some reason that enough people have jumped ship within a year of employment to constitute the need.

Also, the training contract should cover both parties: if your salary, position, work conditions, base, pre-employment promises (lots of factors or conditions you could put in here) change then the contract should be void. That language should be in any legitimate contract. The employer has to have some interest at stake. Again, just my opinion.

 

[Captain Morgan]

What about those instances that the job looks great on paper, but once you get out there to actually work there on a day to day basis, you find out it's far from ideal. Most companies want you to sign a contract when you don't have any idea how the job really works. Most companies have skeletons in the closet that they don't want a prospective employee to see until it's too late and the ink has just dried.

 

[Say Again Over]

Do what you need to do, these training contracts are usually bs anyway, IMO your integrity has nothing to do with this question like others suggest, you are the one paying the bills, I have had to sign these contracts even when current and qualified, if an employer wants you to stay they will make conditions attractive to stay, period. Consider the guy that is working for some 135 operation and gets a call from Continental, if the lawyers knock on your door you can negotiate, otherwise I would not worry about it.

 

[Jpilot23]

thanks for the good and the bad comments. Ethics? trying to better myself. is that wrong? I'm not killing, stealing, beating or raping to do it. So whats the big deal? If the rolls where reversed and the company needed to get rid of me for the better of the company...i'm 100% confident that they would terminate our connection.