Hello, this is my 1st post!
Ok i see that there is a "merged" etihad employment forum but it seems that many comments and experiences are from 3 to 4 years ago!
I believe Etihad was established around 5 years ago, when it was just starting and im sure they havent kept all thier promises due to shortage of money and so forth. But today, It seems to be going in a very strong, upward and positive direction in terms of growth.
I have lived in Abu Dhabi for 14 years, i moved to Canada and have been here for about 7 years now.
Im currently enrolled in University (3rd year) studying Accounting and been planning to get my MBA and all that good stuff.
However, Ive been going over my career options and seems like the taxes here on you income is way too high. For example, if you make $155,000 you come out with approx. $100,000. And this is ONLY after federal and provincial taxes (not including CPP, EI, etc etc etc)
As my dream ever since I was a child, and considering alot of my family are in the AVIATION industry, Ive always wanted to be a pilot for a mjor airline, such as etihad.
If i do take this path, i plan to join the canadian military which will take care of ALL training expenses, given that i have to work with them for about 7 years in total (including training). Thus, by time im around 30, i should have all the neccesary hours and experience to join etihad as F/O.
Starting pay is US$6655 x 12 = approx US$80,000 per annum TAX FREE. Thats equivalent to someone making about $120,000 here in canada. Considering the high costs of living and the soaring gas prices and inflation and all that, its very hard to make an above avergae living here in Canada.
Now its says on the Etihad website that F/O's get housing allowance upto US$31000 per annum. Lets say that realistically they give about 70% of that allowance when your first start which works out to be about US$21700 per annum +US$80,000 = US$100,000++ working at etihad at the beggining of your career. Thats equivalent to someone making $155,000 in canada. People here work years and years with significant graduate degrees to get to the 6 figure salary range and when u consider the really high costs of living and all the taxes and deductions from your pay, it makes the value of ur income in canada even worse!
My question is, am I being too optimistic here? From recent etihad F/O recruitments, what housing allowance did etihad start you off with? How is the management there? I know that UAE has some discriminatory problems but im used to that and i know its not as human-rights associated as for example, Canada. But i just want to get FO's first hand experience with Ethad. Was it difficult landing the Job, is it hard to progress, etc etc. Compared to other airlines around the world, how does etihad rank from on your opinion?
Also, do you think joining the canadian millitray and sacrificing 7 + years of my life to be worth it? Will they view that experience highly or is is just a waste of my time joining the military? (remeber, military pays all aviation training costs, an estimated savings of around $40k to $50k)
Also, my most curious question, hows your scheduling on average?
Thank you very much!
