Its tough to join direct on a big airliner in my eyes if you dont have a huge financial Background .(not talking about schemes like KLM or Lufthansa )
I would say there jobs out ,small first underpaid but good to experience the "whole " aviation "Circus".
In my eyes noone can take u the experienc flying nighcargo on a shorts or Dornier europewide.
At least you can tell ,when youre a senior on a bigger Airliner or Business Jet ,your stories to a young chap next to you .
Sorry, but this is old information. Or at least information that doesn't pertain to western Europe.
It is now far easier than it has ever been for a 250h CPL/IR holder to get a job with Ryanair (via CAE) or Easyjet (via CTC). You just have to be the right person. And that right sort of person is aged under 30, willing to work for a pittance and be dicked around like something chronic. Oh, and having £30K in the bank for your TR also helps.
It is sad that airlines don't view GA experience as useful any more, despite many GA pilots that I know being raised in a multi-crew culture with very high standards of training. Fortunately, the corporate world does recognise this experience- although not having the right TR is the usual barrier to entry to this career.