Hi Col,
The best advise I can give you is plan to do your licence in the country you tend to work/fly in. Conversions to other countries are not as easy as just taken a couple of exams.
Like I said in other posts getting the right to work in other countries is not that easy either.
The only other option is to go to a well know school in florida and do the jaa cpl/atpl , which will entitle you to return to the UK with mininal fuss.
The easy part is getting the atpl/cpl getting a job with 105-155 hrs is the hardest thing.
No matter were you go UK, Australia, USA, getting that first job will be difficult no matter how smart you are, its your attitude that will be key.
Automan
Automan