250 hrs - I wish!

[Wave Drag Jones]

Everyone on this website talks about the 250 hr wannabe and what a hard time it is at the moment. Here is my situation, I am sure others are in the same boat, and I would appreciate some advice:

I gained my fATPL just over a year ago and, due to hard work, determination and some luck, passed all tests first time. This meant I left flight school with 159 hrs!! All of those "in the know" on here say work your way up, start at the bottom etc. I am quite willing to do so (I would quite happily fly anything for anyone for pratically nothing just to get some hours) but my problem is that with so few hours nobody will look at me.

Everytime I look at my CV and it says 176 hrs (I have flown from a local club on what I could afford to reach this heady figure) I am embarrassed. Now, I would love to do an FI rating but need to pay for many more hours just to start and then pay for the rating. I don't want to just keep flying an hour VFR in a single every few weeks, as enjoyable as this is it isn't really helping. I am working as a baggage handler at the nearest airport to try and make some contacts but it is quite difficult.

Please don't reply with "this was always a possibility when you started, surely you knew..." yes it was a possibility but I started before sep 11 and even the most average of pilots were getting at least some form of flying job.

While I appreciate the difference is minimal between me and a 250 hr guy airlines such as Britannia obviously see it! I also acknowledge that to most experienced pilots anything under 1000 hrs is low hours but how did these guys get to 250 hrs (was it by circuit bashing etc.)? Any advice would be appreciated.

WDJ