Hi Cirrus
Firstly, never take as gospel any thing "you were told" unless it's by someone with the authority to say it. In other words, wrt the charter and 700 hours, read LASORS and the EASA docs to find the reference and to get it first hand.
I am not saying they are wrong, but it's a good practice to get into.
(An Australian FOI {ie CASA flying operations inspector} taught me that, and if it was good enough for her NOT to believe people on face value wrt to regs etc then it's good enough for me)
I am not overly familiar with the UK market other than night freight, biz jets and airlines however, I am familiar with GA in other parts of the world.
I usually advise folks to find out where the meat bombing (aka parachute drops) and glider towing outfits are and go and talk to them. You never know where it will lead. Contacts and word of mouth are definitely the go in the bizjet/turboprop world.
Find a flying school that has ties in with a charter company or two. Good source of contacts there. They are around and generally don't pump out robotic airline clones.
If you can, go OS. Caribbean, Africa etc. Sure, competition is tough and there's no guarantee. However, you'll learn more in one year than you will in 5 years of airline flying.
Many folks dismiss bush flying/scenics/piston charter as not airline relevant. Rubbish. A fuel decision is the same whether you're talking about kg or tonnes. Operational decisions like to continue or divert due weather, pax illness etc are the same. Just the scale is bigger in a 767.
Unfortunately, the airlines that are hiring at the moment in Britain favour inexperienced FOs who are desperate for a job and will pay for the privilege.
Therefore, they are now a revenue stream, in effect, the most expensive "Speedy Boarding" programme available.
After 6 months out you go or you're put on some contracting deal whereby they can play with you at will...
