Longchop, if you joined such a quite demanding aircraft as the Dash 8 right off from flight school why couldn't a newbie start his career with the A320 for instance? Provided of course an apropiate TR syllabus (extended) has been used for that level of experience.
There are many talented young pilots out there who are very capable of flying a mid size jet, as well as many others who will never have the skills needed, but thats a different story.
What I'm trying to say is that you just took a different route (very nice one, by the way) to achieve your goal of flying a jet. But that doesn't mean everyone has to go down that way.
At the end of the day it all comes to excellence in training and adequate handling skills what's needed to become a reliable F/O. Regarding experience, I'd say its critical when selecting Captains but not that much for F/O, although it's always desirable.
Just my opinion.
