Topslide6,
In a word, yes, I am seriously suggesting just that. Whether you have 250 hours, or 5,000 hours, you aint getting a job on a jet in Europe now. I am certainly not attempting to make our experienced colleagues out to be anything less than they are, because they deserve as much respect as their logbooks demonstrate.
Perhaps a better way to approach the argument is this - in better times, experience puts you in better stead. However, when there are no jobs for pilots under, say 7,000 hours, 10,000 hours or whatever, ANYONE who falls below that benchmark very quickly becomes 'just the next guy', regardless of the number of hours.
As I said, have a quick look at the Jet2 thread - there are 7,000 hour Captains applying and being rejected. There are cadets being rejected. They are all in the same boat unfortunately, and unless you have one hell of a logbook, you're not even going to get a look in.
And I say cadets may be at a slight advantage in the grand scheme of things, because you must consider every option - my airline is currently an option for cadets, but not really for experienced guys, because we know 99% of type rated experienced furloughed guys will just leave when they can find better T+Cs elsewhere.
So my personal belief is that the best position to be in right now, is straight out of flight school/have a logbook exceeding 10,000 hours (or whatever the current benchmark is)/have very good contacts, or a combination of the above, although I should be very surprised if somebody has achieved the first two hand in hand!
Personally I'll be staying with FR for as long as I can see - it's about as safe a place to be as you can get, and it pays the bills easily with enough left to take the family out for dinner. It's rather funny how many of the original 'Ryanair bashers' are now 'bashing' at our front door desperate for work. I personally don't see the big deal surrounding T+Cs and how good or bad they are. If you want REAL hard work as a pilot then travel down to Venezuela and try some mission work flying a 172 in and out of 200 metre strips lifting the thing off the back of the drag curve for equivilant £600 a month and ****ty living conditions. Ryanair's a luxury methinks!
Aviation rewards those who are open minded enough and work hard to get where they want to be. The others? Well, take your pick of moaning sob stories on this website. Things have a habit of catching up with you in life sooner or later, so keep your options open and err, KEEP YOUR OPTIONS OPEN!
All the best, Ad