Flying is a unique occupation. You need to really like it, and has to be in your blood if you want to stay with it long-term. Someone once said, “we fly because it gives us that euphoric feeling.”
Perhaps now is the best time to train as the economy is slow (as in the U.S), this prepares you for the jobs once the economy gets better. Most people probably wait for a good economy to train in and once they are done with training we are back in a recession. Business cycles are here to stay so get use to it, use them to your advantage and focus on the long-term.
I would suggest that you put together a development plan for your training and initial flying jobs. The plan may have to be revised as time goes on and things change. You may need to position yourself for a job opening. In my case I started off in FW, became an instructor and worked for a year at a small airport flying single-engine Cessnas and Pipers. Wanting something bigger I went to a flight school as a student at a larger airport to fly several hours (about 10) building multi-engine time. The school was very professional, the air taxi department had light-twins and a couple of Lear Jets. It was actually owned by Kaman Aerospace and I did meet Charley Kaman one day, he did seem strange, but when you build your first helicopter in a garage you have to be strange. I acted professional and eventually got the nerve to ask for a flight instructing position. The boss said they did not have an open position but if I wanted we could go for an hour as a check flight. We went out and I showed him how I flew and instructed, when we landed he said he had an opening and I accepted. At that time many years ago I had about 400 hours TT, the air taxi department requirements were an ATP and 3000TT to be a captain on a Beech Baron and 5000TT for Lear Jet Captains. I instructed for about a year and a half and moved over to the air taxi department with about 1200 hours TT. I was a co-pilot on Lears for a year and then moved over to dedicated client service on an HS-125-700. About five or six guys were applying for the HS-125 co-pilot position but I was selected, I found out later that I had a good reputation on the Lears. Hard work and no whinning pays off. Not bad at age 24.
Later I got out of flying for a number of years and then discovered helicopters. What I like about helicopters is that it is raw flying, you don’t have your head buried in the cockpit looking at a flight director as was the case in the HS-125. The over thing I noticed in helicopters the people are real, in corporate jets there seems to be a few pompous and conceited people running around. My initial career goal was the almighty airlines but it seems like that job has changed where the pilots are more like computer programmers and system monitors.
By going to the larger airport as a student it got me some exposure to get noticed and get into the instructing position. The instruction position got me exposure for the air-taxi department. The Lear jet position got me the exposure for the HS-125 position. Being there in person I’m sure helped out because chief pilots usually have a stack of resumes 8 inches high at any given time, being there in person helps out.
Maybe down the road for your career you can attend, at your own expense a Super Puma GS and get some sim time at Bristow or Helicopter Services, this way you are at the facilities getting some exposure and you get to put it on your resume. If you do this and it’s a tossup between you and another chap who has not shown such initiative you can guess who gets the job. Another positive aspect is that you will have contact with crews and administration personal, perhaps in GS you will sit with company crews. You can notice how they act and talk, what their values are. Remember, offshore helicopters operators don’t really hire co-pilots, they are looking for Captain material, people that fit in.