Where shall I start?
Once finished, my course (pre-APP) were all dropped like we had the plague but two months later, and surprise, surprise, the first APP course all had jobs within a month of finishing (several of whom I'm still in touch with btw
).
To our minds, OAT told/rigged/bribed/pleaded with the airlines to 'try' their new product so all recruitment via OAT was put on hold until the APP'ers started to graduate, meaning that we couldn't get a foot in the door for love nor money. This was, ahem, 'revealed' by the chap from Channex at the BALPA EOC 2005 who asked me why I hadn't secured an interview since leaving OAT, to which I replied that airlines such as his were currently only recruiting APP'ers. A redder face and stuttering voice would be hard to imagine!
Thankfully 2 years on, we have all found jobs by ourselves but we still feel sad that our memories are not as pleasant as the APP'ers, who as one poster said, is like a reunion when he turns up at work! How nice for him...