Recruitment
I'm afraid I have no inside knowledge of future recruitment plans but I suspect with the market opening up and morale at a low ebb in Flybe at present due to the management attitude in recent pay negotiations it may not be too long until recruitment of F/O's becomes necessary.
Regarding the opportunity to rapidly progress to a jet then I'm afraid that the situation is unpredictable. The company line is that most of the 40 E175 firm orders will be deployed overseas and so will not improve the chances of current pilots moving to the jet. Others however suspect that the company's renewed enthusiasm for a single (turboprop level) payscale is due to their intention to replace Q400's with E175's on a one for one basis as leases come up on the former. Most people suspect that the truth will be in the middle somewhere.
For info F/O's who joined 3-4 years ago are just starting to get on the jet at less popular bases. For Captains you're probably looking at 10+ years for a jet command. Frankly you'll achieve a jet command quicker at BA than at Flybe as things stand!
Finally a word on performance. The Q400 doesn't offer jet performance by any means, but it is a huge step up in performance from a Seneca and posesses similar systems and avionics to a jet so that operating it is similar. Those who I respect and have flown both say the Q400 is more of a challenge than jets they've flown. This is due to:
It has some avionics quirks that can really trip you up
Its ice protection systems are totally manual
Its power levers are highly sensitive right where you don't want them to be and there is no autothrottle.
In an engine failure situation like all turboprops it has a whole extra set of levers to worry about/feather/do something useful with etc.
Couple that with the fact that it does have power by prop standards - we used to fly up to 270kts IAS down to around FL100 and we frequently climb out at 240kts. Perhaps the best analogy I can give is that if an Embraer 195 is an Audi R10, then a Dash 8 is a Caterham or TVR. The R10 is faster in a straight line but less of a challenge and arguably less rewarding for the aviator in you.
Desk-pilot