K.O.
The problem with pilots progressing to the major airlines is there are so many regional pilots out there that are qualified to move up and going to the majors is a very competitive process since you will be vying against them for the jobs. It seems that the ones more successful in getting into legacy carriers are the military pilot. Since your only 24, have you thought about going through one of the branches (Air Force preferably since you will likely fly a large transport jet there). In the good ole days, working at the legacy carriers means you had a set life, now it’s totally unpredictable due to rising costs, poor revenue, intense competition from low cost carriers hence why many airlines go into bankruptcy like American is going through right now. Keep in mind, American was once a very strong carrier even post 9-11, now that name may never exist since US Air may take them over. Look at Pam Am, Eastern etc.
I really don’t think person that went to Purdue or UND etc would be better off. I think someone who went to UND and Purdue probably had a more normal college life than ER (UND maybe less debt). It seems the biggest complaint about ER is that it is so aviation oriented, it didn’t seem like a normal university (just look at the male-female ratio). I think the problem with wanting to be a pilot is that it is hard to start off no matter if you went to ER, UND, went to Flight Safety etc, everyone doing this themselves have to somehow build hours to move up. You can graduate with an engineering degree from Harvard but not get hire at the regional if you don’t have the hours (where it helps is when HR has to decide if they choose you or the other candidates applying for the job). Once you get the hours, you still are not set as there are always furloughs, bankruptcies and intense competition finding pilot jobs (just try to find some 737 jobs right now in the US and you can see how few position there are at any given moment).
You are right, not everyone at ER is arrogant, you don’t seem so from your postings. One thing about ER is you definitely got a better flight training that your peers who went to other flight schools especially in that area. So keep positive.
Last edited by TruthSeeker6; 5th Jul 2012 at 18:22.