I've been around a while and flown with many F/O's on Boeing and Airbus aircraft with experience ranging from a few hundred hours to 10,000 +. Some have Military experience while most were G/A.
So who makes the best F/O in a complex aircraft like the A320? Of course that is a question that can't be answered because every pilot of every experience level is an individual with varying levels of skill ,motivation ,competence ,level of knowledge etc.
The fact is though that age and experience alone don't necessarily make a good F/O and eventually a good Captain. Some of the best and most knowledgeable F/O's I've flown with are younger 'in-experienced' guys who however are really keen to learn and most importantly really want to be in that RH seat. They'd love more money and would have been happy to have the company pay for training but in the end they just want to be doing what they're doing and realize that even a company like
JS is not exactly poverty line stuff and in the end leads to pretty acceptable pay and conditions by the rest of OZ workers standards. Despite all the claptrap about low pay you'll still be in the top 10% of Australian wage earners even with
JS.
As an aside I've also flown with some amazing ex-Military blokes too who in general have the same characteristic of rarely talking about the military unless asked and are keen to learn the ropes of Airline flying.They also stuff up on occassion just like anyone else and will openly admit same .
So for those G/A pilots
considering any avenue at all including Cadetships to get in the Right seat of an A320 and if that's what you really want then go all out for it NOW !