Flypuppy
you're right, of course! I was a bit unsympathetic - probably comes from too much time on this forum. I dealt with the facts of the case rather than the hopes and disappointment of our friend smartcol.
I do understand how frustrating and downright scary it is for those of you who are tipped out into the full blast of reality from the sheltered waters of the training system. You have a perfectly reasonable point that the FTOs could and should try harder to look after your interests. But the fact remains that they don't, and they didn't promise to. Those of you still in the training system, and those in the process of choosing an FTO, may be able to do something about this: kick those FTOs into offering the services you need, by threatening to take your money elsewhere unless they sharpen up their act.
However, that doesn't alter the fact that there are very few jobs out there, however much we might all hope otherwise. Nor does it change the economic realities of supply and demand. It most certainly isn't the fault of those more experienced and now unemployed pilots that the few jobs available will go to them before they go to smartcol and his peers. Nor would it improve the situation to advocate that people work for free; that just diminishes the commercial value of all pilots everywhere.
For smartcol, right now life's a bitch. It seems like all the cards are stacked against him, and he feels that the industry incumbents are conspiring to keep it that way. That's not true, but it'll hurt anyway. And nothing I can do or say will improve it for him!
All he can do is have patience, keep current, build hours when and where he can, and it might all come together at some point in the future - but no-one knows exactly when that will be.
Hopefully the rest of you will now understand why we recommend you have a back-up plan.