Originally Posted by tigermagicjohn
A rating alone is useless without hours. At many airlines now the minimum to qualify to apply as FO is 500 hours on type!
Exactly! That is because they don't want to hire lowtimers without real job experience; they want to hire pilots who can start flying as FOs the first day. They want to hire FOs who have already been employed by other airlines. That is how THEY believe they should do business. Other airlines (like Ryanair and Easyjet) hire lowtimers without any experience. The pay is less the first years. Which way a specific airline chooses depends on many things (e.g. interest calculated for costing purposes, pilot turnover and company culture).
If you buy yourself 300 or 500 hours on type, you will most definitely not qualify for airlines requiring a MINUMUM 500 hours on type.