I'd just like to correct something Carnage wrote...
After 9/11, no-one was given the boot after their 6 months probationary period, unless they were not suited for the job of course (as in bad assessments, snapshots, reports etc). We had a major shake-up after 9/11, with temporary part time and long periods of unpaid leave being offered to a lot of crew. To this day, the company avoids forced redundancies as much as possible (it has implications on later recruitment). This is why there are so many redeployments within the company right now, as well as voluntary redundancy in some departments (mainly management).
We're still flying high though, so for those of you in the hold pool, please be patient, don't despair just yet. There's an uncertain future for a lot of comanies and people right now, so if I were you, I'd concentrate on working hard in whichever job you have right now. Save as much as you can (training and first month of flying is not easy on the wallet). Pretend you're crew, learn airport codes, watch all kinds of customer service, from phone calls to supermarket to restaurants. This will help you with your onboard and class room performance. Read up about countries and cultures (it comes in very useful - I wish I'd done that at the time).
Keep breathing, don't drown swimming around. You will hopefully get the call at some point, it's just taking a bit longer than usual, due to the global credit crunch.
Good luck!
Gg