Africa and PNG are both good places to get in and move up quick, and 500 hrs should be pretty reasonable. Maun in Botswana is a good place to start, and there are a number of S African companies running around Africa who will emlpoy you with that kind of time. These are not jobs you will land by sending off a CV though; you'll have to do a road trip. A place like Solenta will start you on a Caravan in the right seat (yes, the right seat of a Van) flying a Red Cross contract. Generally guy's move to the left seat, then the right seat on the ATR (all over West Africa for DHL). It's a good place to get good turbine time and reasonable T&C's.
Friends of mine have started on the C206 in Botswana or Kenya, then the Caravan, then to Solenta, Trackmark, Naturelink or a similar operation. A few ended up with Hong Kong Express on the NG after a few years in Africa, a coule went to CX from there. It's all about getting in and getting and working contacts. Be a chap, make friends and stay in touch with them. You'll end up with a very good network and will find it hard to be unemployed.
Here's a bit of skinny for ya:
A good place to knock on the door in Bots is Sefofane (they say they have hired for the season but one never knows):
Sefofane Air Charters
P.O. Box 6850
Windhoek
Republic of Namibia
a bigger op based in S Africa but with bases Africa wide and an expat employer is Solenta, a good place to go after a bit of time with a place like Sefofane, they are accepting CV's:
http://www.solenta.com/employment.ph...33&parentid=33
Another good large operator accepting CV's is Naturelink:
Naturelink Aviation
Hangar 12 & 45,
Wonderboom Airport
Pretoria, South Africa.
Postal Address:
Naturelink Aviation
PO Box 15585,
Sinoville, 0129
South Africa
Best of luck with it. . . it's an adventure. At the moment a true adventure as some of these ops also operate into Afghanistan.
Hey PCLCREW, what kind of jet time do you have? If it's on anything larger than an RJ I would have thought you'd be in a pretty good position. Bummer you're not having any luck dude, keep it up eh.