Of the various factors affecting the quality of a career, right after luck and health are 1) when you're hired relative to a big hiring push, and b) how old you are.

Being young is nice, but what you want is to lead the pack. Hiring occurs in spurts. Imagine for example that a major hired 3000 pilots from 1996-2001, and didn't start again until 2007-2013, when 800 pilots were hired.

The junior 200 hire is only 1 number ahead o the first 2007 hire, and only 801 from the bottom guy, even though he has 13 years longevity. You don't want to be that guy. You want to be the 1996 hire. He never skipped a beat, had a possible upgrade in year 2, and was a widebody Captain about five years before the junior 20001 hire can even think of being the most junior Captain.

Moral of the story: get in line (any line) early.

Early is now. We're sitting on the cusp of an epic wave of hiring (right until the moment it gets interrupted), and the pilots that got hired at the 3 legacies this year are going to be envied and cursed for decades to come. The 2014 hires are going to be in almost as good a shape, because the hiring machine is completely spooled up yet.

The time, IMO, is now.

Good luck.