I was kindly invited me to start a new thread since a recent post of mine was not in the appropriate thread. I was explaining why today I am considering paying for a type rating against all those who thinks I would ruin the industry by lowering our standards. It's long time I'm considering posting this very personal point of view as it could raise a lot of criticisms... please be kind enough to respect it if you don't agree.
Here it is:
And don't offer to bring the type rating yourself! This only results in lower wages for all of us and ridiculous offers by employers, agencies and the like.
I disagree with this. During the past 20 years all the pilots sitting in warm places didn't do anything to prevent the erosion of hiring conditions for younger pilots. I personally don't think I'd win anything by sitting on my ass waiting for an opportunity to come and I'll do all what is required to upgrade, including paying a type rating with the money I've earned while I was being grounded because employers were not considering non-rated guys. This doesn't mean I'm gonna discount my wages or whatever. Like most of us I want a decent family life without giving up on my career because I'm not competitive with you. I have 11 years of experience behind me and I'm tired to hear this isn't enough to get a job. In fact experience doesn't really matter, it's all about costs (type rating, insurance etc.). This means I'll help myself as I don't expect anybody to do anything for me.
During the past years everybody was lying about pilot shortage, promoting cadetships and MPL because this is what saves money and headaches to the airlines. I don't remember reading lots of colleagues warning about how this could spoil pilots working conditions.
For years employers played creating competition schemes between wannabees and very few of the experienced guys tried to act against it, simply because they didn't feel concerned.
I'm really sorry but I don't think that asking me to wait is legitimate. It's a year and a half I'm on the ground because I followed your advice and didn't pay for a type rating. With all due respect, today I am concerned about my own situation and if the current market is in favor of employers I'll cope with it.