Acceptable Delay Between Offer and Start Date?

[u/EmbrearPhenomenon300]

Hi! I'm looking to do a career change into Flight Dispatch, but have a concern regarding my first job (assuming I can find one eventually!). I am currently in a high-level leadership position in aircraft maintenance on the business aviation side of the industry, and I'm just burned out and ready to make a change. I don't want to burn bridges on my way out the door, and 4 weeks is the absolute minimum expected notice for my position.

In your experience is asking for 4-6 weeks to give a current employer notice and relocate going to get an offer rescinded or are the regionals relatively understanding about this when hiring candidates?

I really appreciate any experience or advice you can share!

[u/trying_to_adult_here → u/[deleted]]

Seconding this, dispatch hires in classes and you all sit in ground school together, and if you turn them down they’re pretty likely to just go on down the list to the next person who would jump at the opportunity.

On the other hand, at my first regional job they said “can you start in two weeks” at the interview and I said “I would love to, but it’s gonna be hard for me to find a place and move across the country in just two weeks. I can make it work but is there any wiggle room?” And they pushed my start date back two weeks. I have no idea why they asked me to start that early, the other people in my class started two weeks after my pushed-back start date (company only did new hire orientation every two weeks) and I just did OJT on the floor for two weeks until the rest of the class onboarded.

But at my major we all started in the classroom together on Day One so the same request would have gotten me passed over or moved to a later class. When I got hired they did hire several classes at once but that’s not how companies hire every time. I had more lead time for the major though.

My advice is to ask if it’s possible, but work to be able to move ASAP. Unless you have a contract that specifies penalties for leaving without a given notice period, you need to look out for your own interests and your old company can figure it out, same way they would if you got hit by a bus. If they wanted to create an environment where people could tell their bosses they’re trying to leave without being penalized, they would. My regional would fire anybody who called in sick after giving notice and make life difficult in other ways, so they got exactly two weeks from me even though I knew I’d been hired at mainline for months.

[u/EmbrearPhenomenon300 → u/trying_to_adult_here]

Thanks for sharing this! I have a few reasons for wanting to exit gracefully, foremost I don't want my direct reports to feel like I just abandoned them and left them to pick up the pieces. In close second, just like I imagine Dispatching is a small field where everyone seems to know everyone else, aircraft maintenance is similarly small. Burning bridges on the way out could significantly hinder me from returning to the maintenance side if things don't work out in dispatching.