Inner, I did the A320 rating with GECAT in Jan/Feb of this year and got a job within two weeks of completion. As did the other 3 guys on the course. The training was very good indeed. Typically they will offer to arrange base training for you via their partner IAGO who usually use Cyprus Airways in Larnaca - this costs you another £5k including the flights and hotel.
Sometimes people get interviewed and offered a job before completing the rating and don't need to do if their new company base trains them instead. I think that's quite rare though and more likely for those with a few thou hours.
GECAT help with the job search by providing you with practice interviews and feedback about what different company interviews are like. They forward your CV to those companies they deal with directly i.e. are asked to provide a certain number/type of candidates for interview. However, in the cases of myself and my 3 colleagues we managed to get the jobs ourselves.
One guy was already quite experienced and had been very proactive in approaching A320 operators before starting the rating and by the time he finished had 3 interviews waiting for him. His sim buddy contacted one of those interviewers and got himself an interview too which he did well on and got offered a job before any of us.
The TRIs are often airline training captains doing a bit of extra work so there is a perfect opportunity to network and if you give a good account of yourself then they can provide an invaluable recommendation as to your aptitude. Both myself and my sim buddy benefited from recommendations from (different) people who had taken us in the sim.
I have to say that this course was the turning point for me. I had always worked very hard and passed all the hurdles but this was when I felt it became a probability rather than a possibility that the final outcome was going to be the dream rather than the nightmare.
