What Tonker is basically saying is that CTC cadets demand only the best airlines and aircraft and that CTC cadets are spoilt brats so lets play tricks on them....that is completely stupid. No other word for it. Most of them are like any other wannabe in the industry and the vast majority are far from being spoilt at all. In fact I do not know a single cadet who managed to just trump up 60K by asking mum or dad for it although I am sure there are one or two. Most ex cadets in the hold pool are working all sorts of random jobs now just to keep head above water.
If you are a lucky CTC cadet and made it through the course and popped out the other end at a time of industry boom you would likely have seen good prospects on the horizon for a secure jet job. After all that's what it says on the tin. Having parted with atleast 60K in the mean time it is concerning to say the least when there is pretty much not a single job out there. Let alone a jet job. I would say that right now if any flying job at all cropped up that was lucrative enough for a cadet to pay the loan off they would be flying. Sadly the loan repayments are such that most cadets are better off now working on the ground to quench HSBC's thirst until there is an industry turn around. Either that or declare yourself bankrupt but that is never a popular move and is not a nice situation to find yourself in. The other problem that is looming is the currency issues. IR renewals etc etc. Not cheap and sadly beyond budget for all but a few of the hold poolers.
The situation as it stands would have been almost impossible to predict 2-3 years ago when most of the holdpoolers applied to CTC. And CTC itself couldn't have seen it either until quite late when airlines suddenly started reacting to strong market downturn. That is the joy of being in an industry that is notoriously unstable and as a wannabe you would unfortunately be on the sharp side. WWW has some good points regarding the current climate and I can say that if it was me applying now for CTC I would hold off.