Recently redundant and buying a rating?
I've recently been laid off by a light turboprop operator. I qualified late last year and was very fortunate to have networked my way into the right hand seat of UK turboprop airline. To date I have 500 hours (420 excluding sim time), of that 200 hours are on a 7.5 tonne turboprop. I got turned down by Ryanair earlier this year and so that option is closed off to me. An FI rating is pointless at the moment as there are no students to teach and despite driving around the UK for the past three weeks giving my CV to anyone who would take it there are just no jobs to be had.
I'm ashamed to say that I am on the verge of doing a 737EFIS & NG rating with 300 hours on type. I will go anywhere for a job and having spoken to a variety of 737 operators in Eastern Europe and Africa it would seem that there are reasonable opportunities for jobs and I would be considered. However, something just doesn't sit right with me.
I'm not experienced enough to be confident of sitting the recession out as I think my grand total of 420 hours won't put me to the front of any queues particularly as my training was 'patchwork' modular with a CPL done in the UK and an IR done in Spain.
I don't want to say that I'm on the verge of packing the whole thing in, but I'm feeling so hopeless at the moment and this 737TR + 300 hours seems like my only way forward.
I'd be most appreciative of any advice. As this would be my second job I didn't think it belongs in the 'Wannabe' section.