My 2c - I have supervised (in one way or another) more than a few pilots, and one thing that I continue to see as a red flag is pilots who seem scared of aeroplanes. I have even employed one or two, hoping they'd grow out of it, but they didn't.
I've flown with pilots who are greatly perturbed by unexpected bumps and turbulence, or terrified of the thought of TS, or scared of crunchy water, or paralyzed by mechanical failure. Now I'll be the first to admit that each of those things might lead down that path to a smoking hole in the ground. But none of those things, of themselves, are a disaster - bumps is almost always just bumps when everyone/thing is strapped down; airliners used to routinely fly through TS; there are plenty of pilots who'll tell you their aircraft is a great carrier of ice; and there are very very few mechanical failures that render an aircraft truly unflyable.
The real disaster is the lack of big picture thinking - when a pilot focuses on the problem or the fear and stops flying the aircraft. The disaster is the pilot who overreacts to turbulence and rips the wings off the aircraft; the AF470 disaster was the pilot overcome by fear of TS and stalls; the LA610 disaster was the crew who focused on procedures instead of staying (at least partially) in control; but the crews who kept their fears (no matter how justified) under control saved UA232 and OO-DLL.
So to all those starting out, the single best advice we've all heard is "never stop flying the aircraft". Procedures are great, and clearly permit even mediocre crew to fly airliners safely almost all of the time. But the moment you stop being in-command is the moment you've passed through that last slice of swiss cheese and are about to become a headline.
Our aircraft are becoming more automated and procedural, the nature of the problems we see is changing, but the response does not - keep calm and fly the aircraft.