The Floor recognises your rant
The problem is I don't see any turboprop jobs going. When I finished training I was straight on the blower to Aurigny, Eastern, Atlantic and Loganair (who I especially wanted to work) but was met with a brick wall. Have you got 500 hours on type? Was the norm.
Type rating now will set you back around 28000Euros, so I paid just over £21,000 a year ago.
One thing I object to in your post is your accusation that just because we went straight to jets we have poor handling skills. I take great pride in my flying and I don't believe that's the case in the slightest. I regularly handfly my aircraft up to over 20,000 feet (anything more and it's generally frowned on) and will happily disconnect passing that same level in the descent. That's not a Ryanair trait either, saying people can't fly properly because they didn't steam around in Cessna's for 6 years is like saying you can't drive because you didn't race Go karts at 13 years old.
Horgy