the jobs la!!
good one and constructive comment from "scratching". In the end, its just down to the hard yakka of perseverence. Do NOT give up handling the aeroplane while you're waiting for that illustrious job in the RHS. Go and tug..yep, fly the pawnee, get your hands on a Thruster FGS or a cessna 180. Being at the sticky end of the pipeline does, in the end, create dividend, even if it is a B200 job out of Angola or Mozi.
As a 20k C and T with a China Sea based Co, I see the best quality from the guys who have hung in there, chased the Africa offer and some. The boys from PNg or Vanuatu are the same. Its about showing your new employer that you have the tenacity and the dedication to both survive in the job, take the **** and the politics of the firm, the crappy flight time limitations and the early, min rest calls, split duties and 2 sector, long haul days. Its about working for guys that you or most of your peers would never fix bayonettes for when the whistle blows but seem to hideously manage their show. Tug the forelock, bite the bottom lip and get on with the job of handling the aeroplane without breaking it, complaining about it or crying to the union. The easy bit is flying the aerolplane and hey, no one gives a toss where you were in the pickings of first time instrument rating passes. If you can fly the Twotter out of a Scottish winter with no autopilot and into an Airbus summer of chinese typhoons, then all is square with the world. I seem to detect an underlying groundswell from the Uk potentials, that its Ok to rest on the laurels of a good CV and wait for the Fly B or EJ boys to welcome with open arms. Forget it. get your arse out into the paddock and get flying...anything...but show them that the dedication is founded on the passion to fly and not the parameters of conditions of service, a gold crusted ATPL and the ticks in the box. It is afterall, an apprenticeship. One that is built from handling aeroplanes in hard environments, putting brevity to the "war stories" and being true to the industry you have chosen as a career. Good luck. See you in as I'm on the out!!