Ouch! Another reason for the forthcoming pilot shortage once the dust settles. I foresee ab initio programs in US domestic airlines in another 10 or so years.

My story is a lucky one. I applied for a kind of scholarship to a small flying school in panhandle of Florida. They paid for all the training and even gave me a small stipend with the only requirement being signing a 7-year training contract. For this I was fully flight trained then sent around both the USA and some international destinations to build my flight time. I had a few ground duties to do, but the flying was really great. After about 17 years of this, my flying position was downsized due to a reduction of the competition in 1991 so I started looking for another type of flying job. Most of the airlines were in a recession and furloughing, but the Beagle was hiring 70 a month. I was lucky. Although I had 5000 turbine time, only 9 of it was MEL but they needed pilots so bad they hired me any way. Having a brand new ATP-MEL helped. When the good times hit again, I wasn't "qualified" for any major airline jobs since all my MEL time was SEC except for the two hours of PIC during my ATP-MEL check ride.

By time I upgraded and built up 1000 hours of PIC-MEL, the economy was teetering and a downsizing was beginning to show again when 9/11 happened. I'm not unhappy. There's always coulda, woulda, shoulda thoughts about what I could done different, but overall I've been pretty lucky to have job doing what I love best.