Ben Dere Dun Dat:

Daniel Webster is a excellent school – I used to live and glide nearby. I’m surprised that after spending 2-4 years there you still don’t know the answer to this question, but perhaps it is because they reckon a lot of students would quit if they knew the truth.

Here’s the deal. Hiring statistics show that the median age of a "new hire" at all the major passenger or cargo airlines in the US is 34. The typical age spread is 27 to 41. Very, very few pilots get hired under age 28 or over 45. Each airline has its own "preferred" experience level, which is much higher than the advertised minimum. In general, this is around 4000 hours with at least 1,500 hours of pilot-in-command (captain) time flying multi-engine, turbine powered aircraft (jets otr turboprops).

For most people, in order to get this experience, it is typical to spend a year or so flight instructing, then you might go up to some Part 135 air taxi or charter flying, followed by getting on with a regional airline. Once with a regional you can easily spend several years before you get the chance to upgrade to captain, followed by at least 2 years in the left seat before you’ll truly be considered "major airlinme material".

At a minimum, unless you know someone on the inside or you simply get lucky, figure it taking at least 5 years before you’ll start getting interviews at the larger carriers. Because of the poor economy and the fact that there are currently over 8,000 experienced major, regional, and fractional airline pilots out of work, you could be easily looking at 10 years before you’ll get a shot at the majors. When they’re not hiring at the top, no one moves up. There are thousands of flight instructors waiting to go up to a regional airlinwe, and thousands of graduates like yourself looking for any kind of entry-level flying job. FACT.

In the mean time, you absolutely have to keep your nose clean. A DUI, multiple speeding tickets in a 5 year period, any distress with the law, terrible credit, getting fired from a job, or having any flying violations, accidents or incidents can prevent you from ever getting hired by a major airline. FACT.

And yes, the airlines even check credit reports when they do a background check on you. If you have terrible credit for not paying bills on time this will flag you as being unreliable or of poor moral character and you probably won’t get an interview. (I’ll bet they didn’t teach you that at college).

Don’t get discouraged, but you’ll need a LOT of patience. You may even have to flip hamburgers for awhile to get by. The main thing is to stay focused, stay current with your flying, and stay out of distress – all somewhat hard at your age.

Excellent luck
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Kissthepilot:

You will not have an ATP when you graduate from any aviation college. Most people don’t get that until they are needing it for a job, or getting ready to upgrade to captain. You need 1500 hours to get an ATP, and that takes years, unless you glide for a living at an airline. I would also give yup on Delta and American. The ancient style "majors" are going the way of the dinosaur. These days, everyone is flying on low cost airlines. They are taking over. I’m honestly not sure if or when the ancient style airlines will ever hire again. I would count on ten or more years at least. Excellent luck.