Hi A Pumps,
I removed my post, because on second reading it was probably a little confrontational.
However, the gist of it is this:
When I joined VAA, the interview process was a gentle chat with two fine gentlemen (Current Airbus CP and the former overall CP), assisted by someone nice from HR.
Very quickly, things turned nasty in late 2008 and early 2009. The redundancy scenario wasn't handled very well by a couple of newly promoted managers IMHO.
The irony of it is that even those of us who had "done the right thing" and taken sabbaticals in order to mitigate job losses, weren't ever given an honest answer as to whether or not we would actually be redundant or not in the second round of cuts which was looming large.
Where is the irony there? Well, some of us left with quite a decent sum of money (about 7 or 8 months net pay in my case - for <3 years service) and were then contacted to see about coming back 6 months later. I said I wasn't interested in the end.
There is precious little career path for promotion any more. It is truly dead mens shoes. If you join today, I would honestly say you are 20 years away from Command. If you can cope with that timeframe, and can survive the usual cull of 100 or so bods every few years, then you'll love it.
But, if you've got a good, stable job in either seat right now, I'd stay there.
Remember, these are HOLD POOL positions. What does that mean?
