ERA is starting to bring in new blood. Talked with their Chief Pilot at HAI earlier this year. They will hire someone with a Commercial Helicopter and Instrument rating and 500 hours Helicopter. They start out as a SIC. After 1000 to 1200 hours Heli and at least 3 PIC recommendations they are considered for upgrade. They will hire someone with 1100 hours with a Helicopter CFII. But it is not such a good deal as they are thrown to the wolves so to speak. They are totally on their own in a 206.
As for the cooks, the not so good ones don't last too long. One way or the other, they are gone. You take care of the cook, he will take excellent care of you. But the absolute best eating is on the rigs with cajun cooks. The most important rule, NEVER eat on a rig with a skinny cook.
There are a large number of applicants, but so many of them do not meet the requirements of either the insurance company or the oil company. The oil companies are getting quite strict on pilot requirments. Companies like Shell, Chevron and BP and made studies of all the accidents that have occurred with helicopters supporting oil operations and have used those studies to change contract requirements. A small part of the problem is that helicopter operators look at SIC time as useless time and most do not count it. The GoM is requiring more and more two pilot helicopters, but many operators are not making use of the potential training and evaluation capacity that that seat represents.