From the wife of FlyingTom - some of these posts are pathetically ignorant and show a spectacular lack of empathy.
When my husband decided to follow his dream to become a pilot we both appreciated that it would involve risk, debt and some very lean years. He was lucky enough to be sponsored through the initial training but unlucky enough to have the prospect of a job taken away at the end of the training when Buzz were bought by Ryanair and all sponsorship deals were cancelled. This left him with three options; pay for a TR and have a greatly enhanced chance of getting a job (particularly as he was 30), carry on as a flying instructor earning minimum wage and hope that the industry came to him or give up altogether.
I remember the dilemma and while I agree with the principle of not paying for a TR, real life is nothing like the world portrayed by some of the earlier posts on this thread. When people have worked so hard to reach the final hurdle, who are you people to shatter their dreams with your nasty and spiteful bile spat from the comfort of your full-time pilot jobs?
You are right - people shouldn't have to pay for their training, but the sad fact is that the industry has changed (as have many other industries, my own included). Instead of this unseemly bitching, all pilots and wannabe's should be working together to improve T&C's - remember Management read these pages and they must be very happy to see such a divided work-force.
When people ask for help on this forum they don't deserve such abuse - if you established pilots don't have anything supportive to say then stay silent.
To the chap who started this post - I hope you take the job offer. Get your first job and good luck for your career. The TR decision was a tough call for us (it's a lot of money) and my husband did pay for his in the end and is now happily flying for BA - earning enough to pay off the debts!
I appreciate that partners don't normally post on this site but I remember how important sites like this were when my husband was starting out in 2001when we both used to read posts to try to workout what was happening in the industry as he made such important decisions. Positive and honest comments are called for - not the kind of negative nonsense from people who should know better.