This was me about 10 years ago, right out of school I applied for all the major cadetships and silly 20 Y.O me thought surely i'd get into one of them, but of course I didn't - these things are very competitive. Being rejected hurt, I had planned to give up on aviation if I didn't get into one. Anyway to cut a long story short, I ended up going the traditional way, spend my savings and working to get my PPL, used Fee-Help to get my CPL and my instructor rating. I was one of the guys who only really got his instructor rating because it seemed like the 'easy way'. But guess what I actually really loved instructing, especially when I got to split my time between instructing and multi engine charter. I've just started at my first airline and to be honest while I enjoy it and its exciting and rewarding, part of me would love to go back to instructing and charter if only I was earning a salary which I felt was worth the investment and hardwork I had and was putting in.
If you have a passion for aviation you'll find that no matter what your doing, if you getting paid to fly, you'll love and enjoy it. TBH sometimes this is the problem with aviation, employees know how much we love to fly. If an airline or Qantas is your goal then great, as an instructor I always found students with a long term goal worker harder and were far more dedicated but don't be supplied if that goal changes. Good Luck.