Starting the bond from day one can be looked upon as a blessing - not the deduction from salary which sucks, but anyway. Some new joiners a few courses ahead signed a 3 year bond (old arrangements) decreasing from date of FLC. If your training takes 6 months you are able to leave without penalty 4-6 months earlier than the pilots on a 3 year bond under the old arrangements. Scant comfort I know but.....
I think sometimes a deep breath and a look at the big picture may help decide if it's right. If you need a job and there isn't another on the horizon then you don't have much choice - there are considerably worse places to end up. It may be you're coming out here for other reasons.
However you arrive out in DOH, if you do your 4-6 months on basic salary minus deduction the pay then gets much better. 18 months later it gets better still when the deductions stop. Then after 36 months you find you won't have pissed away the stuff you've had deducted - it can happen, cars depreciate a lot in Doha, going out can be expensive.....
For the record - I can't see who the deduction actually benefits other than the company but eventually when even less people come beating a path to their door they might rethink. I shall enjoy my week of holiday this winter (and shan't be taking them up on their kind offer of buying it back) in the hope that they will work out why they are unable to attract enough pilots to fly the schedule and why a lot are trying to leave.
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