My tuppenceworth;
In my company we have cabin crew who have gained pilots licences. None of them have ever been hired as pilots in this company (some made it elsewhere). I have nothing against them, good luck to them, but I sense a certain prejudice in our selection board.
A previous airline I worked for had a couple of wannabe pilots working in Flt. Ops (surely a better area for gaining suitable experience). These guys were finding it impossible to break into the piloting side (even when less experienced people were being hired) because they were so keen to please and subsequently so good at their desk job that the management realised they were the best workers they had, and couldn't do without them in that post. Literally they became indespensable as ground staff!