Well my two penny's worth now:
I have just landed my first job with a very big airline on a jet. I am low hours (290 TT), self-sponsored modular route at a reasonably small school and my dad is not the chief pilot of this company! I applied like everybody else and happened to be one of the chosen few for interview.
On the day of the interview, there were 16 of us including me, the majority being from Oxford Integrated courses. However there was two other guys from my background and a PPL flying instructor with 1300 hours from the 'self-improver' route. Now apart from the fact that there were no ex-military guys, there were people from every background.
I was told personally by the guy that interviewed me that he did not really care where or how I got the licence, but I was employable as I had a current licence and that was all he was interested in! He asked me what I thought of my training school and did I think my training had been good? I gave an honest answer that I thought it had been excellent and nothing more was said on the matter.
So what does that tell you? I know it's different from Airline to Airline but this company was not bothered in the slightest. The problem with this industry is nothing is ever logical or follows a concise path, which leaves all those people applying in the dark. I applied to bmi regional months ago and I was told I had to have 1500hrs, 150 multi, or an EMB145 type rating! The next month I hear they take on several low hours guys????? Where is the logic there?