razzele
The guy had to be making it up or not telling you the whole story. The fact is that if he paid CTC 68k he would have to be a cadet and cadets don't go into the hold pool.
Secondly, once ATP or Cadets complete their type rating they get 6 months of line training. I'm told it takes about 100 sectors to pass your line check which then enables you to fly with any captain (Not just a Training Captain).
Easyjet are short of pilots, are you expecting us to believe that a fully qualified pilot would not be used when they are cancelling flights all over the place?
It is of course possible that this person did not come up to the mark and couldn't pass the type rating or line check but I've never heard of anyone going into an easyjet holdpool once qualified.
SW