Originally Posted by ubpilot
Yes, I am a Chinese. In United States, it’s very difficult for us regional pilots to move on to something bigger than a CRJ-200. Most pilots in major airline such as United, American, Delta, Northwest, or Continental will spend their entire career flying something no bigger than B-737 or MD-80. If anyone can give me some information in China, I’ll be greatly appreciated.
There is nothing wrong with flying an MD-80 or 737 for your whole career. In fact, if the pay was good enough, that would be preferable to flying long haul IMHO.
That said, ETOPS is right, neither hires foreign pilots at the moment. I've been involved with training China Eastern pilots in the past. They do everything in Mandarin. An F.O. there makes about $ 500 per month, while a Captain is closer to $1000. That was a few years ago so it may be higher now.
Even if you are Chinese, are you an ABC ? Do you speak Mandarin or Cantonese ? Can you read and write Chinese ? Can you think in Mandarin ? Even if the answer to all those question is yes, I doubt you'd get hired by either of those carriers on local terms without a PRC passport, which is about the only way you would work your way up the ladder to flying 747s internationally.
Some mainland Chinese carriers are hiring expat pilots, but generally only those who are already experienced on type. One of the recent start-ups reportedly hired some low time foreign pilots who probably went out and paid for their own type rating. In fact, there may be a thread somewhere in here on that.
You might be better off looking into Cathay Pacific as a Second Officer. With them you'll have a pretty well defined career path and it is one of the better jobs out there.
Typhoonpilot