Damn, I guess times and expectations have changed in the last 15 years....

Back just before 9/11 the average turbo prop regional wanted 900/100 just to apply...places with jets typically wanted 1500/100...

I went to school, worked full time, and flight trained at a local FBO.. No help from parents, all student loans for school, and CC's for flight training... Bartended whenever possible.. Basically did anything to get by. Now these new guys are complaining because they aren't at Delta or AA 5 yrs after their first flight... 10 yrs ago the only guys with a shot at SWA,JB or AirTran ( only companies hiring) were 10 yr regional Captains that had atleast 1000 TPIC.

I did as much online course work as possible and night classes so I could fly/credit 6-8 hrs of Flt/Grnd training a day when I CFI'd to make ends meet....found descent deals on multi time when I could and would travel to get it. At that time Florida had a few places that you could do the "safety pilot" deal to reduce costs.

Hired at a small turbo prop regional at just over 900 hrs. Took a few classes so the student loan payments weren't due. After that deferred my student loan payments for around a year ( maximum time).

Found my way to a jet regional at their minimums. Crashed where I could, did the airport sleepover, commuted to my hometown when possible...did whatever possible to get by..

11 years later finally got hired by a Legacy, 3 years after that finally debt free..

Moral of the story....15 years ago you still needed between 900-1500 hrs to get hired....pay was a bit less, and there were no Legacy expectations because everyone was furloughing