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Originally Posted by 69beers  This is basically a myth and your instructors should know better. Commercial, multi, and a realistic amount of hours, maybe. If anything it is used the other way around to string employees along to think they will get a shot at a pilot slot if they stay for a few years and do as they're told, only to never get a chance. I know of two dispatchers who have gone on to fly and it wasn't with their airline. I know far more who have the ratings and hours and chose to be a dispatcher instead. The majors aren't too worried at all about filling vacancies as there is a surplus of experienced dispatchers out there. A regional is more likely to lose dispatchers when they go on to do just about any other career for more money. The reality of it is there are few job openings at the majors and the regional pay is low enough to keep it a revolving door. One of my first interviews out of school was at a 121 regional. They wanted me to sign a 1 year "training" contract stating that I would have to pay them $3k if I quit within a year since they were "training" me. Their training was the FAR required initial training, not sending me to dispatcher school. I went elsewhere and was at a major within a year. Out of the 4 career-oriented managers I interviewed with only one is even still in the airline industry. |
I believe that at ExpressJet if you have your commercial and multi, and are working in dispatch, they will give you an interview for an FO position when it becomes available once you get 500 hours of total time. I never worked there, but some of my coworkers who did said that they knew a few people who had started there in dispatch and gotten pilot jobs with the carrier. ExpressJet has been downsizing of late though so there might not be that many pilot jobs available...I have heard that they're not a bad regional to work for, though.