You are corrcet in everything that you said - especially the analogy regarding a surgeon with no experience. But I am talking about the direct comparison between a pilot straight out of ATPL school compared with a Pilot straight out of MPL School. In a head-to-head competition, surely the airline would rather go for the person who can straight away walk into the right seat of an A320 on Day 1 compared with the ATPL person who will need type rating, line training, simulator time which is alll a considerable amount of cost aand time to the airline?
Obviously, 5 years down the line, if the MPL pilot hasnt bettered himself - i.e done more training to get the ATPL license, he could certainly find himself third in the pecking order when he/she goes for the covetted position as a 747-400/A380 pilot or indeed a Captain position.
I'm trying to find out who gets their foot on the ladder first- the ATPL pilot straight out of school or the MPL pilot straight out of school? Surely you are at that advantage of being the first in the pecking order (providing the airline requires pilots for the specific plane you trained on). And rememebr, if you are looking at further career progression, you would have had the job first, earned the money and paid for extra training yourself to get more licenses whilst still building up hundreds of hours in an airline and getting paid for it!
I still welcome anyon'es opinion cos this is such a tough decision.