Whoa, big fella!
The reason for the large numbers is down to the growth of cargo on the one hand, and the imperative for us to be an entirely separate company from mainline, who provides us with the vast majority of pilots to fly the cargo services.
The difficulty in finding people springs from a lack of qualified pilots on the market (unattached to major airlines).
As stated earlier, working conditions are fine and certainly superior to many airlines I and my colleagues have worked at.
Though the benefits are not as sound as with mainline, they are hardly poor. The money is never right, but for 'my money' the difficulty resides is the number of job options being offered qualified people, with SIA being just one of many.
The minimum experience of 7,000 hours total time of which at least 3000 is as PIC on a widebody is consistent with the market, insurance requirements, and the actual operation we are involved in.
Difficult interview? I wouldn't say it was difficult at all. Mine took 15 minutes, the sim took half an hour and then there was the medical. You either have the qualifications on paper or you don't. To not have them is to not be invited for an interview in the first instance. SIA doesn't waste money, on anything.
All that remains then is to invite the candidate to Singapore, ensure he fits the picture presented in the documents, of which the airline is very stringent as, suprise surprise, aviation has its share of charlatans, then pass the candidate on to the pilots for interview. This is all done pre-interview, as indicated. If your stated details are not supported by original testimonials, you don't even get to the interview.
Fifteen minutes of face time with senior pilots usually suffices in determining whether or not you're likely to start cursing your employer or things in general. One or three probes on your knowledge of the job is usually enough to identify a genuine, authentic candidate.
Training bond as a problem?
Possibly. It's an unattractive feature, no doubt about that. Yet I'm not sure it actually limits interest.
There's no movement to mainline as the B747 is being retired from the airline's passenger services.
Good luck.