Ryanair hired 2 OAA grads in 2005 and 6 more in 2007. Nobody starting OAA back then would have predicted that Ryanair was likely to be where they would end up.
Ryanair hired 57 OAA grads in 2007 and 41 so far in 2008. These grads would have started their OAA course in 2005 and 2006.
People considering OAA right now should be asking whether they would be happy doing the Integrated course and ending up having to pay for a Ryanair type rating on top, or funding their own type rating anywhere else for that matter. Those nearly 100 OAA grads who have gone to Ryanair recently took the jobs they could get, even it turned out to be different than where they thought they would end up.
For people like Dr. Jones to come on here saying they must be bottom feeders who can't get on elsewhere is insulting both to the individuals and to Ryanair's pilots in general. The Ts&Cs at Ryanair may not be to the liking of many pilots, but there are many good pilots at Ryanair. They've all passed the same JAA exams, flight skills tests and type rating courses that pilots everywhere else have to pass and they have met the standard.
PKB,
It would have been the Captain's that made the decisions you refer to, not brand new FOs and it has a lot more to do with the corporate culture MOL has created than the relative quality ranking those pilots came out of their FTO with. That's some pretty serious thread drift creeping in if you want to discuss what's wrong with Ryanair.