TopTup,
thanks for the great post. I guess I was trying to find out if with limited experience there are actually jobs out that you can buy yourself into.
I don't agree with working for nothing.... but I don't have a problem with paying for an endorsement and/or some icus time if that's whats needed to prevent having to clock up 1500hrs+ of single time.
You're right, the time spent on the station / in a community etc etc is great experience and something that you can't buy - I just don't want to spend too long on this rung of the ladder before moving on.
If you are not in your early twenties or have changed from another career then you will know what I mean. Why wait in the long queue if you can go through the 15 items or less express checkout lane? I wouldn't call that jumping the queue and it sounds to me like a lot of sour grapes when people complain that everyone should do the hard yards and graciously wait for something good to happen...