Should I stay or should I go ...?
I'd agree with "Stansdead" completely.
I swapped VS long haul for EZY short haul many years ago and am now much less exhausted than I was. It's still not great of course - I & others think their alleviation to roster 5 "Earlies" is actually quite dangerous BUT at least you can usually get ONE other thing done outside flying on a flying day, and on your days OFF, they can be productive days off and you're not just recovering from jet lag.
With VS I found that:
- they usually rostered a STBY on the day before your duty away, which invariably meant you got called and had to change how you were going to spend your day off down route.
- I watched an awful lot of films on HBO in the middle of the night in the US & was completely exhausted when I did get back so that even if my body was back in the UK I didn't have the energy to do much, or again I was awake at weird times of day & night.
- they expected you to work for "love" not money, just to fly their "sexy" aircraft to "sexy" destinations, although I understand this has improved.
- Whereas say EZY has a roughly 50/50 ratio of Capt/FO's, VS use heavy crews so there are less Captains (I'm guessing at 60/40 ratio), so longer to command + they took on a lot of young to middle aged guys who several years ago who are going to be there a while before they retire.
I'm sure VS has changed lots since I was there but my general advice to F/O's these days is try to resist the schoolboy in you that wants to fly a 747 - especially if you want to do anything with your life outside flying.