Thank you @Beacat F8F and @Journey Man! Your advice is much appreciated!
My current situation is that I have been offered a place at an FTO on an integrated scheme ready to go. Yet with the way the industry is I thought it would be crucial to get onto an airline scheme which is what I am in the midst of attempting to apply for at the moment. As people have said any job is better than no job, and I couldn't agree more!
The airlines I'm looking at include Easyjet, Flybe etc but as an example with Flybe if I were fortunate enough to get past the application stage when it reopens and to progress onto the Embraers, would this particular type rating affect going over to the big airlines like Emirates, Qatar and whatnot whose fleet are predominantly Boeing and Airbus? From what I've seen this all appears to be a grey area because who knows what is going to happen 10-15 years from now. I know at the moment Qatar accept turboprop within their fast track hours but again this prerequisite appears to be disappearing fast!
Either way any job in this industry is like gold dust so as others have said, if I were offered one, take it and that's exactly what I'd do! I was just curious as to what paths experienced pilots have taken in the past and how this may or may not reflect the present and the future.
Just hypothetically though and on a completely separate note, if one were to be able to afford self sponsorship would you advise they do this in the climate we are currently in to get to the potential jet job first? Additionally if you could afford to fund a jet TR later yourself after and along with the thousands of hours of turboprop time how would this be seen to an airline? So let's say several thousand hours on an ATR plus an A320 type rating. This may seem completely random and by no means am I in a position to afford this, yet I'm just curious.
Finally, @Journey Man I genuinely don't mean to be intrusive however just so I can get a big picture of your experience do you mind me asking who your employer is in confidence?
Thank you again everyone! I genuinely did not intend to hit a nerve earlier and I hope you all understand the true meaning of my question. We all have aspirations and as a young and very intrigued individual who has yet to be trained, my aspiration is to hopefully one day be operating and commanding the jumbo and beyond.