I completed my CPL in 98. I flew skydivers for free, half an hours drive down the road on weekends and an ocassional weekday for around three months after finishing my CPL. I was also doing my IR at the time.
When I headed north I had 250 hours. I spoke to all the companies I could find on the phone and none of them gave me much hope.
When I arrived in Darwin I felt desperate, but I got a bar job and met some lovely backpackers to boot. Many prospective employers told me that it was the wrong time of year. (August) I went around to all of them with a single page resume, that's all they used to want because the type of guys that do the hiring and firing don't seem to have the attention span to go through anything longer.
One mob I spoke to told me that they had just put someone on, however he guy asked me if I had any other useful skills such as a background with mechanics or the like. I told him about the work that I had done overhauling my 250cc motorbike.
I then drove 300 km out to Arnhem land, another mob out there still had my resume and seemed more than surprised that someone had actually taken the time to do the drive without as much as a sniff at a job. They showed me around and seemed quite genuine about giving me a crack in the near future, presumably because I had shown a bit of initiative and had at least proven that I didn't have two heads.
While driving back into Darwin from Arnhem land that afternoon, I got a call from the other guy that was impressed at my mechanical skills, they still needed someone after all, and I was invited to start the next day. They only had singles for me, but they paid all my accommodation and many meals plus $20K. It was a lot less than the other job I left behind in Sydney but three times the fun.
I had been in Darwin two weeks waiting for work before I got this job!
It wasn't all beer, skittles and shinny jets from then on but it has been fun and I am in a bloody ripper of a job now, so don't let the bastards get you down and keep in mind the positive stories as well as the negative ones.
Willie Nelson.