I have been out of Oxford for a couple of months now. In terms of actually getting a recommendation, I know that a few people are getting put forward to FlyBE.
I haven't been selected for a recommendation as of yet, so I'm just hoping right now that this all changes soon. As, many others will say, this job search is really really hard.
That aside, the OAT careers team do try their best to get as many recommendations as they possibly can do. The problem is that in reality, that is a reflection of the market right now - not many recruiting and aside from Ryanair, a lot of students everywhere, just are not getting jobs. This will change, as it does. However, with the slow down in the industry, we're all a little bit stuck.
In reality though, if FlyBE isn't forthcoming, my main concern is now that I should have just saved the money and gone modular and spend the rest on the Type Rating when it comes around.
I cannot complain at all about the level of instruction that I recieved during my time at Oxford. Everything was first rate. The groundschool instructors (give or take one or two!) really knew their fields, and the flight instructors I had were fantastic and really helpful. The US side of things was really quite disorganised (shambolic sometimes!), however I have been told that this is now being sorted out.
At the end of the day, anyone who is finishing a training course this year though, should prepare for quite a horrible ride to get a job at the end.