I often wonder why wanabees are so obsessed in flying jets (ego?) and that some look on flying turboprops as some kind of last resort. Flying turboprops (OK talking working for one of the bigger operators - Eastern, Loganair, Flybe etc..) you get everything that you would from flying a jet. You fly complex, modern, fast aircraft in and out of big airfields, get vectored for an ILS, speak to the same ATC, fly the same holds and at pretty much the same speeds below FL100. You also follow SOP’s deal with ground operations ie LMC, flight dispatchers, baggage handlers, in the same way you would as if flying a jet. And yes, turboprops even have cabin crew!
Other advantages are; lots of take offs and landings with less of the boring bit inbetween, lots of variation away from the ILS (flew a VOR/DME, NDB/LOC and a visual approach today) also much more opportunity to hand fly-my company actively encourages it.
I suppose it all depends on what you want from the job. I love the flying bit, hand flying a visual approach or an NDB approach to minimums. I don’t particularly enjoy sitting in the cruise, twiddling the heading bug and programing the FMS so that’s why turboprop flying suits me.
Not slagging jet operations off and have the same respect for a jet driver as a turboprop but remember turboprop flying is not tootling about at 140kts VFR at 2000ft in something that looks like a Seneca! Remember a turboprop IS a jet with a propeller stuck to the front.
PS; the above post with reference to jet2 is not very accurate as several colleagues of mine have recently left for Jet2 and several others are in the hold pool, the whole “rush” thing to get out of turboprops is rubbish.