Shortage, ha! As has been said, when companies are beating my door down with competing salary offers, then there's a shortage - I've heard this so often before, it's a joke.
Quite frankly, there are no 'shortcuts' in aviation - if somebody gets a lucky job break, well good for them. If it grates people that daddy payed for the rating, well, rest assured that it grates others that you even had the money to do a CPL! It's not about haves and have nots. There's only a certain amount of experience in the starter jobs that is applicable to the later jobs. How much is zooming around the swamps in a -206 applicable to airline ops in a 737? (which is in my experience always a difficult transition if you've never flown jets before, and even then it's plenty of work). Not much I reckon, so to me it's all about enjoying your career, more than simply chasing a bigger machine.
The time is already upon us when junior pilots advance a lot faster to turbines and machines in the 1900 category (perhaps one symptom of this so called 'shortage') than they used to when I started. Back then (not that long ago!), a 1900 was a giant machine poled by gods, whereas nowdays I've seen guys getting into the right seat with a fresh CPL. If airline flying is what you want to do, then go for the multi crew type turbines/jets, but bear in mind you'll be missing out on a lot of fun! I'm really glad I had my stint in deepest darkest, poling ancient Twotters, it was fun.
Instruction was a great teacher too, despite what others may think - when I was an experienced instructor, my response to emergencies etc were so ingrained that when I did my first charter it was really odd to go from A to B without dealing with some kind of simulated (or real in several cases) emergency!