I agree they have their pros and cons. The sharp cadetship is great - if you have a cool hundred grand lying around that is. Which makes it completely unaffordable for someone my age with a family and a mortgage.
The Rex one is a lot cheaper but you get shafted at the back end upon employment locked in for seven years on a crappy 50k salaray. Which makes it completely unaffordable for someone my age with a family and a mortgage.
So clearly these cadetships are aimed at young people with no financial commitments and the airlines are passing up on the opportunities of employing people who have a lot more practical, business and life experience (no offence to anyone younger people intended). This is stupid because those of us slightly more ripe would still be bound by any contracts long enough to give the airline their payback.
I dont know about anyone else but if Rex offered me a half decent salary on graduation (equivilant to QF or JQ or Virgin or Tiger) I'd be happy to stay there for life and fly the SAABs to the dusty country airfields - it doesnt matter to me whether its a SAAB, a metro, a 737 or an A380, flying is flying.
So if anyone from Rex is reading this.... (ha ha)....
Oh, and Matty, be careful with your PICUS hours. The big four mentioned above are very picky about how much actually counts when it comes to getting a job with them.