My mates worked for XL. One was a captain, he's got over 800 hours B737 command, over 2000 hours TT in jets with an overall TT of +5000 hours.The other colleague (who I did my ATPLs with at Coventry) has nearly 3,000 hours TT with ~ 2,200 hours jet. Another mate was with Zoom but he's just scored a nice Falcon job.
If you intend on finishing within the next 6 months, that's your competition. If you intend on finishing in about 2 years time, they'll still be your competition as they emerge from whatever flying job they managed to get.
Airline pilot? Phh. Corporate jet pilot thanks.
My first sort of proper job in aviation was part time instructing but the
recession in Australia of 1992-1993 was making it quite hard to earn any money from that so I had to keep in full time employment (lab tech) as well as bar attending and security work.
It took me ooh about 6 years to get my first full time paid job. Go on, read that again. 6 years! And was it on a nice B737? No. Was it on a nice Saab 340 or Embraer 145? No. It was on a Cessna 206. That's right. A piston.
Was it in my city I grew up in? No.
Was it in the same state as my family? No.
Heck, it wasn't even in the same time zone!!
For my first jet job I had to shift continents and start again. So I was an experienced "wannabe" in 2002. Ooh guess what the economy/job market was like then. Pretty much as it is now. Crap. So, Celtic Pilot, I
DO know what I am talking about. I knew exactly what I had to do to get where I am now. Did I turn my nose up at the night ops job? No. Did I turn my nose up at flogging around in a Shorts 360 as an FO (even though I had double the experience as the captain next to me?) No.
Was I above driving all over the UK to "meet and greet", ie make contacts and visit employers? No.
Why did I do all that? From experience in
another country taught me that's exactly what you have to do.
You can want it so bad it hurts etc but, if you haven't got a job then what are you going to do? Your IR scanning skills break down pretty quickly. IR ratings are expensive enough as is without having to worry about a type rating validity...
If I lost my job right now I have hoarded enough cash/made extra payments on mortgage to last me a year. I know what recessions are like.
Good luck.
BTW, I haven't said "don't learn to fly ever", I have advised to either delay commencement or go modular.