Er no if they were in that position they would have done CPL first then FIC then waited for the IR.
Not necessarily. The time limit was the main concern for me when I did my CPL and ME/IR. I, like lots of people, had to work and save in between my training, plus having to build hours. I did not want my exams to run out so did the CPL and ME/IR before starting the FIC.
Ideally I would have saved up the money and jacked in my job to do the training full time. But I would question the sense of that strategy with the job prospects being so poor at the minute.