Considering that Modular licence holders only started hitting the job market in 2001, but integrated courses existed long before that as CAP509, there hasn't been enough time to compare the two.
The airline industry has been in recession since late 2001, very few people have been hired, so a fair comparison cannot really be made yet!
Airline HR departments have not been the quickest to realise the significant differences between the JAA Modular route and the old CAA self-improver route, therefore the prejudice that (with some justification) existed against low-hour CAA self improvers was unfairly applied to JAA Modular students. This prejudice is gradually wearing off as the last of the 2000 glut of deadline-beating CAA self-improvers work their way up through the grass roots of aviation.
Under JAR, modular students have to do just as much training as integrated students, and often have more hours. The only real difference between the two is continuity (which is a plus point for integrated courses) and the fact that smaller schools offer modular courses (which makes modular courses cheaper). Unlike the old CAA self-improver route, a JAA modular IR is fully approved. The fact that CTC/MacAlpine cadets are actually doing modular courses is highly significant.
I'd love to know where these legions of self-sponsored integrated students getting jet jobs since Sep 2001 are...
Number Cruncher said
Even in an ideal World, getting straight into a jet job is a very unlikely. I think you need to get that idea out of your head for now and be prepared to take any flying job that comes your way.
Can we have this in a sticky post? This should be compulsory reading for all new wannabes. Even when times are good, getting the licence is just the first hurdle, folks, for both integrated and modular students.
Best of luck,
foggy