Happy Wanderer, been with FR for about 1 year now, started as a 200h FO, have about 700 hours on the 738 now.
All in all a positive experience. Did the TR with SAS in Stockholm (now called Oxford Aviation), very good course. Line training well structured with some very nice line training captains, so even though stressfull and hard work, was also enjoyable. You do get some cash during line training, works out to about £700,- a month. Once line training complete I was offered a BRK contract at the base of my choice, would have preferred a RYR contract but was not possible if I wanted the base I asked for, funny that...
Anyway, after a year on the line I am still enjoying it, the money is pretty good, the roster is very good 5\4 is awesome, and I got the month off I asked for.
Think it all depend what base you end up at and what previous airline experience you have, I came from working as a consulting engineer in London for 10 years, and I can say that from that backround the BRK contract with Ryanair is a sweet deal, no more 60 hour weeks to get a job out on time and dealing with difficult clients. Now I can sit at FL370, looking at the view reading the newspaper and trying to figure out what I'm gonna do on my 4 days off.
I can imagine that as an experienced captain things might look very different, and I repect that, this is just my opinion so far.
All the best and hope it all works out for you
cheers
Goose