My guess would be that they'd only take experienced FOs if they can't get enough cadets (unlikely) or if they lose lots of captains and need people they can promote relatively quickly. I suspect their motive in fishing was more to prove a point to those still in that leaving would result in heartache, using you folk as a lesson to others contemplating resignation. Not much help to you and now what you'd want to hear, but that is my cynical suspicion.