Thank you
Betpump,
You are an insulting, arrogant, miserable SOB. Your PM was (not so) much appreciated, and there is nothing I feel for you but complete sorrow. I am sure you have brilliant CRM, an extrememly happy wife and kids who adore the sight of you returning from a trip. At least that is all true if your pprune personality has absolutely nothing at all to do with real life. Unfortunately, that's not very likely. At least I don't have to put up with you except on here, which is more than enough.
I came on pprune to ask a simple question. Nothing else. It wasn't a job interview or a request for reference, just a piece of advice. At the end of the day, my experience is exactly what I said. To people who have issues with any of it, I'm sorry to disappoint but the hours and facts are all exactly correct. I was very blessed to have people that mentored me, took some amount of risk to put me where they did, etc. I also worked my freakin' tail off and had almost no life for the better part of ten years, so I'm not going to apologize for moving rapidly.
To the five people who sent me PM's and the ones who made legitimate points on here, I truly am thankful. To the rest, whatever. What I don't get is why no one asked the question I would have immediately thought of..."Why on earth would anyone come on here, join the site, and make all this up to ask a question that would have absolutely no relevance in any way whatsoever if it weren't all true?" If I only have a license to drive a milk truck, then my question is pretty pointless, isn't it? So why waste my time on making the post initially?
Finally, I have met plenty of people on the ramp and in the terminal at airports around the world with stories that blew me away. I've met them in the cockpit, too. I one time flew with a Captain who started flying when he was 12 years old. Flew with another who was hired to fly a B58 at 16 and making money at it. Hate to tell you, but the whole world isn't the US and UK. Again, the facts are all completely true, and the original question was legit and meant with sincere interest.
I was respectful in asking and have always been the same in my dealings at work. I wish the same were true on here.