Cpdude
In case you haven't noticed the year is 2007. Cathay pacific does not offer opportunities these days.
In Europe in particular 250 hr pilots start in the right seat of a medium jet and get their commands with about 2500 3000 hrs total. Most of the guys applying for jobs these days have a choice of 2 or 3 to choose from. Don't know what it was like back in the day when you joined but right now there is no need for any of the above to join cx by choice and have to kiss ass for the next 10 years.
As far as experience is concerned, I 'd much rather be sitting next to someone that's been doing 2 or 3 sectors short haul a day for the last 5 years, than someone that's been sitting on his ass clicking the mic every sixty minutes and 8 hrs later log this as P1 time. Flying experience is what you did prior to long haul, Radar vector departures + reading the paper + radar vector ILS does not = any experience worth bragging about.