The outfit I flew for during many years of great working conditions, good well maintained aircraft, good benifits and pay, and the very best guys/galls to work with tried a "direct entry" hire as an experiment many years ago, the best comment I ever heard came from an ex RCAF, DFC and Bar captain who was a joy to fly with, when asked by the chief pilot what he thought of these F/Os S/Os he replied thus. "Some are OK, but really struggle with basic flying skills, however the bigest problem I see is getting their
heads through the cockpit door!" He passed away recently, one of the best!