Mr-P, I think the chap you spoke to is probably in the ATP hold pool as the wings hold pool is pretty small at the moment with no more than 50 (but it will be growing over the coming months). I don't know what the ATP pool is like but of those 50 or so that are in the wings hold pool, most would expect to get jobs by the end of the summer (unless there is some other reason for them not to get jobs). Again, how recruitment this year goes is anyone's guess.
For the other hold pool which this chap was likely in, they would only offer people jobs when the wings hold pool had been exhausted entirely. There are however a lot of cadets graduating at the moment and the cadet pool will probably increase in size a bit more before it goes down. People have spoken of the vast numbers of cadets going through the system at the moment, but don't forget that a reasonable proportion of those are pre-tagged with BA, Monarch, Flybe and perhaps others (I am not up to date). This means that they will not be competing with whitetail cadets or indeed ATP.
Edit: Sorry, i didn't see this was the ATP thread and wrote the last towards the wings wannabes. Others, may find it useful so i will leave it here for posterity.
Last edited by giggitygiggity; 22nd Feb 2013 at 17:23.