I'm not intersted in airlines... as long as I can make good money.
Well, the
only way I know of to make good money in this industry is ni the airlines. And even then, it's not exactly easy...
That aside, do you have the right to work in Europe? If not, not point in getting a JAR license.
Once you've got that hurdle out of the way, an aeroplane flies exactly the same way in America as it does in Europe. JAA is a little different to the FAA system in places. The ground-school is much tougher, for a start. As far as terminology is concerned, you'll hear people talking about a "frozen ATPL", "ATPL(F)" or "fATPL". This is the equivalent of an FAA CPL/IR - might be a little confusing if you heard the phrase and didn't know what it meant.
From what I can gather, there are more regional jobs in the US than in Europe, which means there's a more definite career-path. Over here, a very small number of people get airline jobs immediately, but most people scrape around trying to find work instructing or flying for one of the few turbo-prop jobs, or head off to other parts of the world where there are more piston jobs, while they build up hours.
The biggest piece of advice I can think of, if you're aiming to get FAA and JAA licenses, is to look into the regulations regarding which order to get the licenses. I suspect you'll find that the total cost and effort will be less if you get your JAA license first, then convert to an FAA license. Converting to a JAA license is notoriously difficult.
Not really sure what else to tell you. If there's something specific that you want to know, then ask away...
FFF
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