Gosh how I love the 'there I was a 5000' at 180knots in my POS dodging thunderstorms and therefore I'm better than you' stories.
Guess that was directed at me Kmagyoyo. I wasn't talking about myself. I was simply pointing out that flying night, single pilot, IFR in a light twin can be some of the most challenging flying out there. All raw data, plenty of STARS and SIDS, approaches to minimums, no autopilot, all sorts of summer and winter weather. Those guys have a good scan rate and are easy to train.
My intention was not to get into a civilian vs. military thread. The comparison to JetBlue is just not a good one. They are a US domestic carrier, not even a top of the line job anymore. They attract the experience level they attract due to the market saturation even though many of the guys won't stay there. Cathay has to pay enough to attract people to come to HKG, and they aren't offering enough to get that experience level. Cathay is an overseas job, and JetBlue isn't, so guys with a lot of hours apply there although they will initially make less than our new S/Os.
Its not all doom and gloom. I've heard the S/O horror stories but I haven't run into that myself, and I fly with them a lot. You don't need a million PIC hours somewhere to come in here doing cruise relief and be trainable to upgrade. DEFOs are a different story. That doesn't mean I agree with what the company has done recruiting S/Os on lesser conditions, because I don't. They need to pay to attract people who will make it a career here, and they aren't doing that now.