Contact Approach
This. That's precisely what most colleagues here are trying to get across to the youngsters. That having a zero-hour contract, requiring you to relocate at your own expense and not giving you almost any guaranteed income (think it was 12 hours per month guaranteed contractual pay at Buzz?) can be risky business in times when travel between any two points in Europe may be clamped down at no notice and for an indefinite period. This has to be accounted for when making any decisions. Period. And all success stories of people who joined as cadets and got their command on the fourth year of service, however inspiring they might be, should not be let to cloud anyone's judgement of the risks involved. Those are stories of a different era which might not come back anytime soon, despite the first (rather unimpressive) vaccination efforts across Europe.