Thanks everyone for their valuable responses, I truly appreciate it.
To be completely honest, in regards to the path to becoming a pilot, I don't mind either undertaking a cadetship or doing it the "old fashioned way", (being that I get my CPL, then train or charter to get hours up before applying into the airlines.)

I'm essentially looking for the fastest way to do enter the "big leagues" as I want to enter my dream career quickly but also well prepared and well rounded, and to me the cadetship option seems as though it would be the quickest way to enter mainline. In regards to joining the universities and going through their programs, this just doesn't seem very viable to me as an option due to the 3 year course with no guaranteed job - I actually did work experience at CAE Oxford (I live about 10 minutes away from YMMB) but I figure that undertaking a commercial license at the local flight schools would be much quicker and cheaper.

Then again, I figure that if QF will be conducting their own training (and if they get up to 500 pilots per year as projected), why would they hire outsiders? The JQ and QF programs also look promising but what kinds of guarantees are in place for cadets as it seems quite fuzzy at the moment.

Keen to hear all of your thoughts on this - in regards to the medical, I'm booked in to be having it in the next 2 weeks or so - I've done a TIF and have a heap of sim time (I've got a system at home)
Thanks again for everyone's feedback

I wouldn't be putting all my eggs in one basket if I were you.

With a glossy cadetship setting one back $150,000 it may be wise to read the fine print.
It might be called bait and switch, but Qantas are 'fine upstanding corporate citizens'.

Caveat Emptor

Keep a reality check
 

The greatest single piece of advice I can give you is by all means learn how to fly if that's your passion. Be careful of cadet schemes though they may not give you a job if you don't come up to standard and you will have spent considerably more than if you paid for it yourself, but, here's the main point of my post, by all means have an airline in mind that you eventually want to work for but be prepared for the possibility that it may never happen and the idea that you may never work in Australia.
My airline of choice was Ansett Australia. I was looking for work when it went bust. I wasn't eligible for QF at the time due to high school education and for probably political reasons I never would have gotten a job at Virgin. I'm now working overseas and don't see myself ever working in Australia.
Go forth and learn to fly but do it in the knowledge that you won't get what you truly desire. If you can get what you want, then you've done well for yourself.

This was me about 10 years ago, right out of school I applied for all the major cadetships and silly 20 Y.O me thought surely i'd get into one of them, but of course I didn't - these things are very competitive. Being rejected hurt, I had planned to give up on aviation if I didn't get into one. Anyway to cut a long story short, I ended up going the traditional way, spend my savings and working to get my PPL, used Fee-Help to get my CPL and my instructor rating. I was one of the guys who only really got his instructor rating because it seemed like the 'easy way'. But guess what I actually really loved instructing, especially when I got to split my time between instructing and multi engine charter. I've just started at my first airline and to be honest while I enjoy it and its exciting and rewarding, part of me would love to go back to instructing and charter if only I was earning a salary which I felt was worth the investment and hardwork I had and was putting in.

If you have a passion for aviation you'll find that no matter what your doing, if you getting paid to fly, you'll love and enjoy it. TBH sometimes this is the problem with aviation, employees know how much we love to fly. If an airline or Qantas is your goal then great, as an instructor I always found students with a long term goal worker harder and were far more dedicated but don't be supplied if that goal changes. Good Luck.

Unless being a long haul pilot is what you truly want, as others have commented, don't get too focussed on glossy brochures featuring jets. Keep an open mind. My flying school never had models or posters of a Dash 8 for example but rather always of China Southern A330s, Emirates 777s and Qantas A380s. You can have a brilliant career in the other sectors too. Become an instructor in GA and work your way up to be your own boss as a testing officer, deciding the days you work and the days you have off and flying a broad fleet from the smallest piston twins to Conquests and King Airs, maybe even very light jets with synthetic vision in the future. Work for the flying doctors and be home most nights. Same same for regionals, in a close knit team of 3 or 4 (Captain, FO and Flight attendant/s), where you're hand flying the aircraft more, and manoeuvring around weather build ups, or outside controlled airspace where you're making your own decisions about aircraft safe tracking and efficiency, where you're farewelling and greeting passengers individually. Don't listen to people who say "props are for boats" or get sucked into "do you only fly domestic?" or "when are you going to fly the big ones?" as if you haven't made it until you do sit on your backside for 15hrs at a time, monitoring screen with minimal input and spending time away from friends and family. Do what's right for you. For your aviation aspirations, and more importantly, your lifestyle - what you want from life outside of work.
You can make a successful career for yourself as a pilot operating an aircraft that isn't propelled by fans...

Have any external applicants who interviewed from mid last year heard anything about start dates for this year? Hearing of a lot of internal hold file applicants who are getting dates in May/June who interviewed last August.

Fairly quiet at the moment for externals.
Info from a friend of a friend - "10 new applicants joined in Jan with a further 10 monthly up until May" - Qantas HR. These are mostly if not all Internal applicants

Ive heard of internals who have starts right up to December 19'

There will still be external starts but it seems highly weighted on internals for the time being

Yeah, I got that email yesterday too. Was quoted 12-18 months initially on the hold file but was kind of hoping to hear of some externals with start dates in the last half of the year.

Just got off the phone to a friend who ended up resigning from the Qantas group with a start date for mainline in March this year but because they would not tell her a base or fleet until 4 weeks prior to starting they took another airline job with better service and job prospects. I was amazed but it made sense that they took a job that was certain and not unknown. They mentioned also the recruitment personal have been useless and extremely uninformative for the entire process. They are glad to have knocked them back. Ciao

Why all the concern about "no guarantee of job" - that surely depends on the world economy

My understanding of the JQ cadetship is that at least 95% of those who got selected got checked to line

That is a pretty healthy number

Thanks for your reply Lancer. Hope that is the case!

It triggers me when I read that a pilot has "resigned from the Qantas Group" because they are going to only receive a measly 4 weeks notice for a mainline job. Left or right seat, it doesn't matter - in this industry it pays to be unencumbered by anything opposing a lifestyle change.