To get your first job as an FO in an airline in India right after a CPL with bare minimum hours you either need some real good connections or just sheer luck.
Some have either of the two, few have both.
Ofcourse, another thing that indeed helps is lack of COMPETITION.
(Which is why you'd find a lot of people who managed to get airline jobs back in 2004-2007 without pulling any strings.)
These very people would cry hoarse all their lives about how hardworking and "truly deserving" they are of their jobs, when in fact, the only reason they managed to get a job was that they had all their licenses and papers in order at the right place and time.
Thats the plain cold hard FACT. Those who can accept this will be able to put up with the insurmountable griefs that one often faces in this industry.
Get this one thing very clear all you young aspirants :
Your HARDWORK, TALENT, MERIT are given ZILCH importance in airline selections.
Some of you may say now that you or your best friends managed to get into Indigo, SG, Jet Airways, Air India etc through your own "merit" without having any contacts or "jugad" after burning midnight oil etc.
Then again, remember that in each airline recruitment, a very small number of candidates (lacking contacts) do get selected on merit. That number if very minuscule compared to the number of people appearing for the written exams.
In many cases, airlines simply take in a few random candidates who just get the bare minimum pass marks. This is just so that the airline maintains a "credible image" in the eye of the public and media and no eyebrows are raised too much.
In any case, if any questions are raised about the airline's selection process anytime, they are sure that these very people (like some in this forum) will vehemently deny it and speak in support of the airline's CLEAN and FAIR selection process.
Here's something to ponder :
There are many undeserving dumb candidates who managed to get into airlines WITHOUT contacts/jugad ALONG with all the so called "smart" candidates. How did they manage that ?
The selection process of all the airlines itself are flawed. Some of the interviews are conducted to a reasonably good standard, but the initial written tests to eliminate candidates in the first round is the real issue.
The major problem is :
You may be a very hard working, intelligent candidate.
However, on that particular day of the written exam of the airline, you might lose 2 or 3 marks simply because you might have got a couple of questions incorrect.
Questions on topics or subjects otherwise unrelated to flying or poorly framed questions with plain stupid choices. (yes, I have myself seen some of the questions asked in Indian airlines written exams)
Now, what is also possible is that some good-for-nothing dumb candidate might have got lucky and guessed those very questions correct. (The ones you got wrong.)
Some other candidate equally hardworking like you may have got them right.
and look at the number of candidates appearing for airline exams for trainee FO positions !! THOUSANDS !!
Now, that 1 or 2 marks that you lost will put you down the "merit list" by several hundreds, in a list consisting of several thousand candidates !
Therefore, to sum it up, the biggest problem in India in almost every industry and sphere of life is it's huge population.
We are just seeing one small aspect of the perils of population explosion.
I understand its a sorry state of affairs for many. The lucky few who make it (through hook or crook) must be atleast kind, helpful and supportive of the not so lucky ones.