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Dear Sir,
 
I finished flight school in December and I am currently flight
instructing in Georgia.  Still a novice but loving every minute of
instructing.  I've got a long ways to go for sure. With every hour
of dual given though I usually learn a few things that hopefully
translate to me becoming a better pilot.
 
And I'm definitely glad to be working too. I just worry about job
security; as an MEI I'm so dispensable it's not even funny. There
are probably 40 people just waiting to take my job.
 
Ultimately, I'd like to go to Delta, but who wouldn't, right? The
corporate gigs sound amazing though-especially what you're doing! 
Keep me posted-I love hearing about other pilot's successes and
hopefully I'll be the one telling stories someday too!
 
I can't tell you how much I appreciate your advice and support. Man
it's good to have people who've done this and now say it's worth
it.
Thanks again,
 

COMMENTS: 

 
Hey Gabe, it's great to hear from you, and don't worry. It's
definitely worth it! I have no doubt that you'll be the one telling
success stories in the near future (probably as you're looking down
on me from the cockpit of that 767.)
 
And here's why I feel that way: Because you're building the RIGHT
flight time.
Am I saying there's a WRONG flight time?
Well, no, any hours are valuable. But there are certainly LESS
valuable hours than those that you're currently earning, and by
making the WRONG decisions, they could end up "trapping" you in a
series of low paying jobs (or force you to have to start all over
in a few years!)
Let me explain:
 
We all know that "time-building" is a necessary period in a pilot's
career after flight school. You just have to build up those hours
for awhile until you reach the insurance minimums for the company
that you decide to work for.
It's funny that it's the insurance companies running the time-
building-show rather than the FAA, but frustrating because their
minimums are arbitrary and can vary so much from one company to the
next.
 
It may be true that there are 40 people waiting to take your job
and they'll surely get it... after you're long gone.
You DO have choices, even in this economy. Plus, your timing is
right because there will be choices galore soon enough!
The trick is: which should be your next job on your way to the top?
Making the WRONG choice will cause you many years of delay in your
career. 
 
I am personally a big advocate of two things:
 
1. Beginning any task with the end result in mind. Form a clear
objective in your mind and simply "backwards engineer" the
intermediate steps you'll take to get there. It took me awhile to
figure this out because we are surrounded by a lot of "I'll take
what I can get and see what happens" thinking, especially in our
industry.
 
2. I also believe in eliminating as many of those intermediate
steps as possible in order to arrive at the goal as QUICKLY as
possible.
 
That being said, I remember a few years ago when there was a big
hiring boom. A lot of operators (really their insurance companies)
lowered their minimum flight time requirements to some pretty crazy
numbers and were hiring pilots with only a few hundred hours. A lot
of our buddies jumped on the opportunity to get into that jet! (I
admit I was a little envious left behind sweating in that light
twin.)
 
But then business leveled off and those friends didn't upgrade
within a year or two. Then business got bad and they were
furloughed because they were at the bottom of the seniority list.
 
So there they were, with a good amount of Second-In-Command jet
time, the airlines weren't hiring and... you guessed it. Back to the
flight school and the Flight Instructor job again! (If they could
even do that.)
 
Why? Because, for better or worse, THE INSURANCE COMPANIES
DON'T CARE TOO MUCH ABOUT SIC TIME!
 
It's that Pilot-In-Command time that you're earning right now that's
the key to having choices and a BACKUP PLAN when the industry
inevitably ebbs and flows.
 
If you focus on building a nice cushion of PIC time NOW, you will
have CHOICES in the future. AS SOON AS YOU'RE ABLE, you can get
yourself into another PIC position on a bigger faster airplane
where you'll double your income and rack up those hours quickly.
Soon you'll have a logbook that would allow you to seriously walk
into any turboprop or even jet operator and be considered for a well
paying position.
 
(Or get hired AS A CAPTAIN on the same airline that our buddies are
still sitting in the right seat for.)
  
All because those PIC hours mean something about you. It means that
you have the experience to be able to COMMAND THE AIRPLANE
AND KEEP EVERYONE SAFE. Insurance companies know that.
 
To put it in the words of the Chief Pilot that hired me in a heavy
business jet with 0 jet experience, "I know what it's like to be
out there making decisions like you've been doing for the last two
years. We want someone who can think for himself if he has to."
 
To put it simply, the recession has taught us that if you jump on
the first low time SIC job that comes around, you should be aware
of the inherent risk (besides the salary you'll have to survive on.)
 
You could be "trapped" on your assigned airplane, unable to risk
losing your number on a seniority list while you are waiting to get
in the left seat. If you make the upgrade soon, cool, there's
smooth air ahead.
 
But if the industry takes another dive... you have no CHOICES with
no PIC and you could be back to square one.
 
It's a counter-intuitive move to "stick it out" in that prop, but
when you look at the big picture of where you'll end up in 2 and 5
years, by making the right career decisions now, you will avoid a
lot of wasted time and financial struggle and make a great living
sooner.
 
Luckily, you have all those choices ahead of you rather that
behind.
It's much harder to undo a choice you regret than to make the
correct one from the beginning!