With your frozen ATPL or MPL in hand, you are not yet an airline pilot. Between graduating and your initial flight as a first officer without supervision, you still have to get through an application, a type rating, line training and a consolidation period. And sometimes a wait, if the job market is against you. You should not buy a type rating speculatively. Only buy a type rating if an airline hires you on condition of that rating, or if you do it with the airline itself. A rating without a job expires eventually. Which type makes sense depends on who wants to hire you. The type rating consists of theory and simulator training on the aircraft type, ending with a skill test in a classroom and full flight simulator. This is followed by base training, which involves take-offs and landings in the real aircraft, without passengers, at an airfield. Line training, also called line flying under supervision (LIFUS), is the phase in which you fly real line flights with passengers under the supervision of a designated training captain in the airline network. You apply the procedures from the operator conversion course in practice. At the end you must be able to conduct a safe and efficient flight in your role, which is concluded with a line check. This check flight releases you as a first officer. How long it takes is set by the airline in its operations manual, based on your experience, the aircraft type and the type of operation. Consolidation is the period directly after your line training in which you still count as inexperienced. The airline sets out in its operations manual how it rosters inexperienced crew members. As long as you count as inexperienced, the airline takes this into account in rostering, for example by not pairing you with another inexperienced pilot. After that, you have to stay current.

Airlines recruit newly qualified pilots mainly from their own training pipelines, and beyond that it varies. Around 2010, one pilot reported that direct hiring by low-cost carriers and flag carriers, as had happened in previous years, no longer took place. According to a pilot in 2010, airlines had holding pools, which put new hiring far in the future. According to a pilot in 2017, a KLM vacancy for external airline pilots in November 2017 required a valid type rating on a jet, so pilots with a turboprop rating could not apply, and current airline pilot vacancies often require a valid type rating on a jet and 150 hours flown commercially in the last 12 months. In 2024 a pilot warned of a golden cage, which is a job straight after training on an attractive aircraft on which you fly only 30 to 40 hours a year. This can mean that after years you still have too few hours to move on to another position. According to an experienced pilot in 2018, there are few opportunities as a low-hours pilot to keep your hours current or to switch airlines.1345

Whether there is a pilot shortage depends on the region. In the long term, demand is high, but global long-term demand says little about your initial job. An airline cannot hire without limit due to training capacity, as every new first officer needs simulator time for the type rating and checks. Line training takes place under the supervision of specially designated pilots, and too many newcomers at once makes the roster unworkable. Furthermore, you only need more first officers if there are also captains, who mainly come from the upgrade of experienced first officers, which takes time. According to pilot discussions, the market for entry-level pilots is oversupplied, and there has never been a shortage of inexperienced pilots; more training courses mean more competition for the first job, and vacancies that require only 200 hours hardly exist. Nowhere in the world is there a shortage of newly trained pilots, not even in the US. According to a market report, Europe issues around 15,000 new pilot licences a year, while not all new pilots can find work. Ryanair has about 7,000 pilots in total, and Wizz Air wants to hire about 750 a year. During the 2009 crisis there was a surplus of pilots, with candidates queuing for each vacancy. After the crisis of September 2008, recent graduates could no longer find jobs, and many with large student debts ended up in debt restructuring. A loan for pilot training is a major commitment without a job guarantee.2467

A sponsorship or a school affiliated with an airline can improve your chances of finding a job. In 2008 a pilot advised choosing a school with strong airline contacts or a job guarantee, such as FTEJerez, CTC or Oxford Aviation Academy. When choosing a school, it is advisable to look at the most recent placement results of graduates. Admission to a flight school says little about your chances with an airline, because some schools hardly select. In 2009 a pilot warned that a small, unknown flight school was not a good name on a CV, which could lengthen the wait for an airline job. He indicated that the situation could get even worse for pilots from smaller schools such as DFA. Of two graduating classes at flight school DFA of 5 and 10 people, fewer than half, 7 of 15, had a flying job in early 2009, more than 8 months after graduating, while the rest were at home paying interest. According to one pilot, KLM has historically, when recruiting outside its own academy, only hired pilots from a limited number of training providers.1278

A job after training is not a given. Without a guarantee it can take a long time before you have a reasonably paid flying job. At the end of 2009 a pilot at a British airline strongly advised against starting flight training, given job insecurity, rounds of redundancies and the chance of having to emigrate again for work. In 2007 a pilot warned that training is sometimes followed by years of applying, and a self-funded type rating of almost EUR 30,000 may be needed. A former DFA student found a job with Tyrolean/Austrian Arrows two years after his training, a long wait partly due to the poor period after 11 September. A pilot at Thomson Airways had 4 years between the end of his training and his first flying job. One pilot waited 6 years for his first airline job. Conversely, one DFA graduate was hired by Luxair with just 200 hours without paying for the type rating himself. According to a 2026 guide, becoming a pilot is still realistic for people in their late twenties or between 30 and 35, as airlines regularly hire people in their thirties. However, seniority then starts building later and an upgrade to captain usually comes at a later age. Formally you have the same job prospects if you graduate at a later age, but in practice it depends on the airline. Age is rarely the only reason, but you have less time to absorb a setback.12689

Keep your CV up to date, stay informed about vacancies, network and keep flying if you can afford it. Keep your licence and ratings valid, such as revalidating your IR regularly. Apply widely, as your chance of success is proportional to how widely you apply. Apply to airlines across Europe that hire cadets or low-hours pilots, including beyond the well-known names. Get an instructor rating (FI) to build hours while being paid, or look for work close to aviation, such as operations or planning. Keep your theoretical knowledge and your English up to date, as airlines often test the same skills as flight schools in their selection. Make sure you have a fallback option, such as a completed higher education degree, which pilots have recommended previously. If you only want to work in your home country, you severely limit your chances and must be willing to take a first job abroad. For a self-funded, modular-trained newcomer, the chance of a first job close to home is virtually nil, according to an experienced FO in 2020. A career abroad, often starting in Eastern Europe, is more likely, and few pilots later return home. There are few paid waiting-room jobs for newly qualified pilots, such as some aerial advertising companies or skydiving clubs. The former DFA student who waited two years flew a Chieftain around Europe in the meantime. The pilot who waited 6 years for his first airline job stayed current by flying single-engine aircraft at the KLM Aeroclub. This pilot also occasionally trained at IST Flighttraining for gradings and in the meantime did Crew Resource Management (CRM) and MCC at ATP Academy (CTC). A pilot in Canada found that long trips across northern Canada on his CV helped him find his first and second jobs. About half of Canadian corporate vacancies ask for international or oceanic experience. Some European employers, however, see such trips as irresponsible, so it is advisable to leave them off your CV in that case.246710