Aviation, as we all know, demands the highest of standards from every indvidual regardless of whether your siblings/family are in the airline, however, if one doesnt cut the mustard, one doesnt get a job/qualification regardless of whether your father is in the airline.
bjbb, you will be surprised how the aviation industry actually works. As in any other business, it is a definite advantage to know somebody inside the company when you are looking for a job. Sure, you still have to pass the sim, interview etc, but it does help a lot. That's how it works in Europe. Asia is a different story. Most places in Asia, especially South East Asia, if your father is a captain for an airline there, you WILL 95% sure get a job as long as you have a valid flying license and puts on some nice clothes.
With regard to jobhunting: If you ask a flying school, they will tell you right now is the best time to become a pilot, because there are actually quite a lot of people getting jobs these days. The only problem is that these people have paid an additional GBP 20K and probably work with very poor terms and conditions.
Looking at the Aviation industry over the past 10-15 years, it has only got worse with regards to terms and conditions for pilots.
Anyhow, I wish you all the best with the jobhunting. Just suck it up for the first couple years, and then the job is not so bad.
Good luck
Zakka