Scroggs,
Over the last few months, I have met either through this forum or in person, 509 students who have got jobs within 6 months of completing their IR. I also know other Upgraders who are still jobless after 2 years. This may be just coincidence however I think the majority of 509 students are younger than their Modular counter parts. This I feel may be a factor as airlines want more years for their investment. Some other airlines (I won't name them) prefer career change pilots and the majority of them are Upgraders who got their licences whilst in their previous profession (me included).
With a requirement of either 509 course or 1000 hours, there is NO clear idea of what the airline wants! If a pilot has say 700 hours of which 400 was in a Turbo prop (Shorts or equiv) and a 509 student straight out of the course, then I cannot see or even begin to understand what the airline wants. I do know that airlines want experience, preferably commercial experience as this minimises the risk of failure in training.
The right personality profile also helps and is an important factor but I won't go into that as this is not really what I'm talking about.
Yes, sure, airlines can set any pre-requisite they want for entry but in this case, I believe that this may be an attempt to minimise the applications received thus time and money opening letters, cv's etc (administration costs). This way, I don't think they are getting the best they can possibly get from the pool of pilots only those that fit between the numbers they ask (509 or 1000hrs etc). Not sure what the statistics are for unemployed pilots (509, modular or military.) who have either licences perhaps I should start a thread?...
So, it is unfair that we have this requirement but aviation is not about fairness anyway. What I want to see is that ALL of us are given the same opportunity to start our careers in this profession be it coming from 509, Upgrade or Military. This may be only one airline that has set this standard but I hope this does not reflect what the future hiring requirements are for other carriers.