USA to Africa Career Advice
 

I'm an American and a new FAA Commercial Pilot (250hrs). Due to personal connections, I was informally offered a FO position in an A320 for an African airline on the condition I go through an Airline Pilot Preparation Program. (43airschool.com).

Could I reasonably expect be hired by a US major after a few years of A320 FO? How about if I upgraded to Captain?

What am I not considering here?

Hi, i thought that in USA there were a lot of job opportunities, because it has a great aviation culture. Isn't that right?
Sorry that I can't answer to your question.

Hey yeah there are lots of opportunities here. There are no opportunities to get into jets at 250hours though. That isn't my motivation though - the adventure appeals to me.

Sounds like your "personal connections" airline is 'SPRINGBOK' i will be very cautious if it is 'SPRINGBOK' in spending more money on the "Airline Pilot Preparation Program" yet the airline is flying in red! Why not invest on becoming a CFI and you can easily book 1k hours a year and move to regional airlines then flow to legacy airlines in 4-5 years or even after 3 years with regional airlines move to middle east carriers. That's a safe investment.

Not Springbok. Much smaller airline. The CFI to Regional to Major route is probably the plan, but I had this opportunity pop up and it sounds fun to me while I'm young and single. I just don't want to **** over my career in the long-run in the States.

You could lose all the money you spend on your type rating. And, typically in Africa, getting paid is not so easy.

If you're OK with losing the money you spent on your type rating, and not being paid in a timely fashion, Africa could be a very interesting experience. Once you have your ATP mins, it should be easy to get hired in the US (or anywhere else)...

Namaste...
PS-What country?

I'll be the last one to stop you from an adventure.
However, this is aviation and if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
You may be getting waaaay over your head here by mixing ingredients into a dangerous combination which are:
- inexperience
- jets
-Africa

Yeah I'm concerned about my inexperience too. Hmmm food for thought.

South Africa btw.

I'm assuming you've had a read here:
http://www.pprune.org/african-aviati...b-namibia.html
May be a safer option for you.