angelorange - a single seat Harrier pilot with 6 tours VFR in Afghanistan (less than 2000hrs TT I imagine) or a current A320 pilot with 5000 hours on type in a European environment - who is the better choice? I am not really sure why the fact he had a relative who was a Training Captain in his chosen airline should improve his chances either - maybe I have misunderstood how the old boy network works in these circles and how he really should have been preferred to everyone else because he is a Harrier pilot. He could, of course, pay for a type rating like his civvie counterparts and he may find his chances are substantially improved. Then again if the world owes him a living, maybe he should just sit back and wait for what is rightfully his to be given to him on a plate.
Like so many discussions on here, there is no shortage of people answering the question that no one is asking. I do not like CTC any more than anyone else, and I completely buy into the view that they have a stranglehold they should not on the industry. They provide pilots with no experience and keep ex-mil and tp guys/gals out - outrageous, but it is it what it is. That is the whole problem of this discussion. Some people are trying to point out the iniquities of the current pilot recruitment world - I am not disagreeing with their views. I am, however, answering the question regarding getting into easyJet. If you are a no-houred pilot starting out you need to go to CTC these days - love it or hate it that is reality. To suggest to someone they should work their way up through air taxi stuff or being an ops clerk is just incredibly bad advice - that is a route to failure.
Incidentally, the only way to be a Harrier pilot (when there were actually some Harriers in service to fly) is to start at IOT and then go through basic training, RAF Valley and finally an OCU. Virtually without exception every first tourist Harrier pilot has less than 300 hours when he arrives on his first squadron (he may have another 160 hours from the UAS or be an ex-Creamy who has done a previous instructional tour, but that is the exception rather than the rule). Fundamentally no one bats an eyelid at that, yet everyone complains at what airlines do. I am at a slight loss to see the difference - someone please enlighten me.