More direct joiners?! Haven't they learned from the past?
If the pilots are not bound to Qatar with a long term contract (type rating, etc) and QR takes over complete fleets from other companies they will soon leave again.
The middle east is not a place for everyone. Let those direct joiners have a glimpse at it first (e.g. come to Doha, stay there for a week/during assessment) before they get hired straight away. Or the same will happen as with many ex Spanair pilots - as per rumours.
There are many people waiting in the pool that know what is coming up to them once they are hired. And in general - there is a pool. So why hire complete batches again if there were so many issues the last time?
I can understand that it saves a company time and money (and training capacities) if you hire type rated direct entries. Which is in general a good thing. Win-win situation for both. But despite that, they still have to be standardized. So the effort to restandardize in such big numbers is actually the same as a complete type rating, referring to the past.
I am happy to be proven wrong in this case, maybe I am just overly suspicious.