BigNumber, as always, thanks for your friendly words.
Phantasm, my posts are not of questionable intention, not ever, I can assure you. As for your mistaken identity, apology accepted. Please accept my apologies for any bad feeling and accept my opinions for how they are given - with the best of intentions.
As BN states, the current employment state is/will be and forever maybe a very different one. LoCos are in control, salaries and packages will have to be very different in the majors for them to remain competitive, TRs are happily paid for by desperate wannabes and there is an enormous surplus of pilots to jobs. All of this filters down throughout the many channels of aviation employment from air taxi to instruction to corporate.
Flying around the world and paying for Type Ratings are not options for the less financially supported of us and the less selfish of us.
A strong mind, a long view and an extreme amount of resilience are required to stay in this game and succeed.
I am interested to hear about your friends job with Eastern, he/she has been very lucky and has done well. Oxford found that for them did they? Did they have to pay for a TR?
I think you'd be hard pushed to find another 737 operator (in Europe anyway) recruiting the less experienced ladies and gents in current times!
Quite, and they only take the inexperienced not the less experienced. Which should say something about ones long term value to them.