And on the flip side of that, when I graduated college in 1994, no regional would even talk to you for the right seat in a Metro, Bandit, or SF340 unless you had a bare minimum of 3000 TT, 500 ME, preferably with at least 100 turbine. Competitive mins were more like 4000TT/1000ME/200 turbine.
Even getting a job at Amflight on the Piper Lance required ATP mins if I remember correctly.
How times change.