Look before you leap!
Antony49
My current situ is JAA CPL(H) IR 225hrs TT and no job and not even close.
Be very careful before you commit time and money to the industry.
If you spend enough money with a FTO they may just give you a commercial lift flying a few hours a year on a turbine but the chances are, that the people before you haven't been able to move on and are still occupying the position you seek. Insurance requirements are a stumbling block for many companies who need around 500hrs TT before letting a pilot loose on public transport ops.
Instructor-wise you will have to build to 250hrs TT before you can sit the FI course and I have it on good authority that there are still desperate pilots with CPL IR ratings doing the FI course in the hope of getting a few hours in. The pay isn't great and the hours accumulated, worse.
Offshore, contracts are tight at the moment with few operators willing to take on any new pilots, in effect recruitment is frozen. Bristow still have a few newbies coming through what used to be Severn Aviation at Gloucester but I don't know whether they get jobs at the end or not. They certainly pay through the nose for their training.
Industry outlook is bleak, it has been poor for the last 7 years since I started my PPL and despite all the optimistic threads, the situation will not improve until the global recession ends and more helicopters are in the air again.
As far as foreign licences go, yes it depends wholly on the quality of your training but do bear in mind that the CAA imposes minimum-hour restrictions on licence conversions that can escalate costs. If you are planning to work abroad, check the visa situ. Countries like Canada and Aus. don't want foreign pilots taking the few jobs that are available to home-grown jobseekers so unless you have an entitlement to work there, don't expect them to lay out the red carpet.
If I could do it all again, I would go down the military route, it wasn't available to me back then because of overly-stringent eyesight requirements. 8 years is realistically the thin-end of the wedge from PPL to a decent rotary job in the commercial world, at least if you sign up you will be flying for those 8 years rather than working as anything but a pilot to subsidise ratings and SFH!
Sorry, not what you want to hear but too many people are coming into this with their eyes shut or with empty promises from flight schools of work that just doesnt exist.
Regards, T