It ain't all bad, boys.
If you're considering working for Ryanair, the most important prerequisite is the maturity to see it for what it is. A wildly successful airline, the most profitable on earth by quite a long way, and a company that works people hard and pays them VERY well and on time. The company is run by an evil genius accountant who sees the world before him, I think, in terms of assets and liabilities. One of the most malignant of the latter is unionisation, and not surprisingly it is strenuously resisted. The latest back-door shenanigans of Balpa is the REPA nonsense. One cursory look at their website will reveal how completely underwhelming the project is. A real credit to under achievement.
I'm a Brookfield's contract Captain, have been for over a year. I fly my arse off, live somewhere very nice, sleep in my own bed every night, and earn a load of cash. Up to you, but I think the Ryanair deal is a good one. I find that I sleep very well indeed working for a company with twelve hundred and fifty millions €uros in the bank. If you need all the touchy-feely stuff, probably better off looking elsewhere and hoping your company survives. If you like the idea of flying brand new glass cockpit Boeings with plenty of variety and wads of money though, come on over.
Oh, and for those of you with some kind of weird moral objection to paying for your own professional qualifications, I recovered the cost of my type endorsement in 12 weeks, lads!