MD11Simnerd,
To answer part of your question, I was hired in Jan 95, took the first available F/O upgrade in June 1996, and awarded a Captain bid in Jan of 2005, finished training in Aug 2005 as Capt (training center was backed up pretty badly in 05) Due to age 65 and economy, post 2008 crash, I was downgraded to F/O in May 2010 and re-upgraded to Capt in Jan 2012 which was first available.