Right, here goes, deep intake of breath:- It's difficult to give hard and fast requirements; you will find that the contracting companies have subtly different requirements from the forces that employ direct, for example;-
>A direct force will be looking at personality and commitment as much as background because training and employment requirements mean you need to get a good run for your money.
>The directly employed pilot can't be easily changed once hired so the employer needs to be confident that in addition to ability they'll be easy to work with; this isn't always so easy to achieve - we interviewed some years back and had two chaps with exemplary qualifications, but there were aspects of their personalities which clearly ruled them out of doing long shifts as part of a small crew, often day in day out.
>The typical contract employer is looking for low training requirements and especially flexibility, as new pilots are commonly used as leave relief "floaters" [CAA term not mine]. The latter may well result in a leaning towards ex-military as they are often used to moving around, though of course many of them leave the military to try and establish a more settled lifestyle. This in turn can lead to a common experience of a high turnover of pilots which I'd suggest has been a problem with all the contract employers. At a guess I'd say that the average ASU sees between 1 and 2 new pilots a year on a 3 or 4 crew unit. We've had 2 changes in 6 years.
I would question how many clients actually specify ex-military; the truth is perhaps more along the lines of those are the people who've been supplied and generally they've been pretty good.
>It's undoubtedly true that an ex-mil pilot is more likely to have the relevant low level night experience but that's only part of the package and can be trained for.
Finally - if you're still awake - don't forget that qualifications apart, someone who comes into this game should be happy with the prospect of flying perhaps only 20 hours a month in often challenging conditions.