This is an interesting debate, and it is probably one that will go on forever.
And before I start: I used Pprune through flight school and up until getting a job. This is just a way for me to give something back. Please don’t start flaming me with “you destroy T and C’s” – posts.
I would just like to share some of my thoughts on the economical aspect of the problem, as I have just been through it. I went through what has been described as “the hard way”. I instructed and flew skydivers in TP’s in the US on very low pay after flight school. After coming back to the EU and completing my JAA fATPL I had the following job-offers after about 3 months of job-hunting:
- Caravan FO, did not have to pay for training, salary about 2000 E/month (before taxes)
- J31 FO, Pay for training (approx 12.500 E), salary about 3000 E/month (before taxes)
- A300-600/A310 FO, Pay for training (approx 32.000 E), salary about 5100 E/month (tax free) and free housing.
As I had gone through my training “the hard way” and paid for my hours with hard work and not with money, I was very tempted to go for the Caravan job. But then I started to look at the money involved. With the Caravan job I would struggle to just live a decent life, but with the A300-job I could live a good life AND pay down the TR-loan at the same time.
In the end I chose the jet-job (this is 8 months ago) and 2 months from now I can cash out the entire loan on the TR if I want to. You also have to look at the amount of years (of your life) you spend in a high-paying job. When I took this offer, I fast-tracked myself into a higher-paying job. If I would have stuck with the Caravan, I would still be making just enough to survive AND at the same time not much closer to a high-paying job.
I have no doubts that I chose the right offer, and I have not regretted it once. I agree with you guys that are claiming that it is a company responsibility to type-rate their pilots. But in the free-market world we live in self-sponsoring will never go away until either; a) There is a serious pilot-shortage, or b) It is made illegal.
I do not see either of these things happening in the near future. In the mean time, the best way to get what and where you want is to play the game. Don’t jump on offers that are economically unviable, but if you get an opportunity that can be defended economically – go for it.
By the time it took for me to write this, I see that there are several new posts describing the same subject. I still post this as it is a real-life story supporting some of these posts.
Good luck to you all!