More specifics, please!
I think you need to state whether you are referring to South African or U.S. licenses here, when two very different sets of rules apply. I think some people are citing U.S. FARs in reply to the original question about South African rules.
From what I remember, mid-1981, about the U.S.A. it was this way:
You do one (1) ATP written that takes about a week of intense study to pass, since you can get a book with all the actual test questions and a programmed way of learning how to do the test. There are five areas tested, I believe, on that one test with just 80 questions.
I was out of work at one point when I decided to get down to it and just study for about 15 hours per day for 7 days. On the eighth day I booked the exam and on the ninth I passed the test with 93%. Anyone can pull at least the necessary 75% to pass this written. If you do mess up then you get very specific information about the questions you got wrong so that this test is laughably easy compared to the JAR writtens.
The results must be shown to the examiner in order to take the practical test; it is not enough simply to have passed the test so that you must budget the time to get the results in written form. The results are valid for 24 months. Normally one does the test in a twin-engine aircraft, although you may use a single-engine complex aircraft.
I used a Beech BE95 Travel Air for a practical test that took about 1.5 hours. I was current on the type so that I got about seven hours of instruction from a former colleague, just practicing what I would need to do on the ride. It was mostly a matter of just learning to relax and not try too hard!
There was very little emphasis given to CRM; it was mostly just a very precisely-flown multi-engine IFR test. Upon passing the practical test I was issued an FAA ATP licence. There is no such thing as a "frozen ATPL" with the FAA system.
Here is the catch: Under the FAA you cannot get a type-rating for specific aircraft under 5.7 tonnes such as the Cessna 402, the Twin Otter or the King Air. They have an internal way of doing this for Part 135 operators but it does not translate to something you as an individual pilot can put on your licence since there is no type-rating required or given under the FAA. This is a big problem if you then want to get a job under the ICAO system, of course.
As to the JAR licence:
In my case I had been working in Nigeria for a long time with a Nigerian ATPL issued on the basis of my FAA ATP. After I got the Nigerian ATPL I then added the necessary type-ratings for various Cessnas, the Twin Otter and the Dornier 328 series by doing writtens and check rides with designated examiners but this was because I was already an experienced pilot. If I were a beginner then I would not have got the job in the first place.
I went to London to do a residential course for the ATPL writtens. (I used London Metropolitan University, which I found to be value for money.)
I then did a simulator checkride for P1 qualification on the Dornier 328Jet, which was fairly easy since I had plenty of experience on the type.
BUT another gotcha surfaced since I had not done an instrument check with a CAA examiner. (None were available to observe my 328 checkride, even if I could have afforded the charges for that.)
Just to satisfy this requirement I had to do a "short Instrument Rating Course" and then do a ride with a CAA examiner in a DA-42. All of this was insanely expensive and difficult, especially since under the rules then in force one was not allowed to use the autopilot at all. Just imagine wazzing around in the London TMA in a very light twin on one engine copying clearances with one hand, flying the airplane with the other and tuning radios with... what? Now the CAA have changed the rules to allow you to use the autopilot for some phases of flight but it is still a really, really tough ride.
My present employer wouldn't even look at me until I could show them my JAR ATPL. Well, I am getting on a bit, so that there was no question of investing anything in me; I had to do it all myself to get the job and that is just how it is, same as for you guys just starting out, albeit for very different reasons.
Now we have taken a couple of younger guys with FAA ATPs but there are practical difficulties that come with that such as only being able to operate certain types due to the lack of a transferable type-rating from the FAA licence.
You can see that a low-time guy with just an FAA ticket would get nowhere under ICAO rules.
Part of the problem can be coming up against people who have the money to get that ATPL and the type-rating that gets them the job, when you might need the job to get the money to get the ATPL! Hey, what can I tell you except that life is unfair?
Market forces apply: if operators have a steady supply of appplicants with frozen ATPLs then they need give no, zero, none, zilch, nada, consideration to people trying to break into the game even if they are potentially very good pilots. Your individual problems are of interest to the average employer ONLY insofar as they mean you can be exploited and the sooner you understand this the better for you.
Dig up whatever you can that gets you work in aviation and hope for better days. Don't give up. That is about it, I guess, unless you can arrange being born to people with money in the first place!