Let me say this. I have been with Cathay for quite sometime now. I believe he is pretty, spot on with the coments ,at what goes on here at Cathay. he also failed to mention that the command failure rates are unheard of here in our industry. There is a very real possibility you may never make command.... better pilots than I have not made it or even have been sacked. For "training problems".
Is it a place you 'should not work here" ? NO! I say that because you will have to make that decision. I am glad even still..that I decided to accept the opportunity. Do I like many things that happen in this ailine?... It definately gives you a feeling of no job security. And it can be very taxing on your patience. No I do not.
On the positive side, The money is Great after your 3rd year going into the PAX fleet. And not too bad before that, during your first three years on the frieghter. Health benifits are pretty good. loss of licence insurance pretty good. depending on base and aircrfaft the rosters can be good.
Job security, you may ask?..Hmmm now that would be a good one. from a standpoint of redundancies..Great. From being in the wrong place at the wrong time..Hmmm not so good..ie training , saying the wrong thing at the wrong time..etc. HOWEVER, we work in the airline bussiness in the 21st century. Show me someone in an airline today who feels secure with his or her job, with pay cuts, pension benifts dwindling or non-existent and record redundancies and recieverships and I will show you a pilot that spoted Santa Clause on Christmas Eve at FL350. You get my drift.
Those worries do make for a secure enviroment either and can be mentally taxing as well. So you have to choose your poison.
You have to ask the question, which course do I choose, I do remeber during the SAR's crisis when most of our pax aircraft were parked..not one single redundancy.. yes we intially took a paycut but it was returned.
If you can be very self motivated, learn to keep your head low and watch the bullets fly overhead..you should be pretty safe here at Cathay..I say should.. I liken this to the military in some ways..and I really feel it has no place here in this day in age but, they try to break you and see how you react. And it is not a one time thing, it will go on for a while. Maybe years.. On the line as in normal line flying it is actually fun. You just have to have your skin a little thicker than most and learn to say, "Oh I See..OIC"
But it is not an airline for everyone. Anyone interested will have to search his or her heart and know themselves and make a choice... I did and so far I do not regret it.