I've read through most of this thread and, oh boy, there is some good advice in here together with putting some things into perspective. Thanks to all the previous posters!
I'm currently in a situation that is probably enviable but doesn't give any indication as to when I'll actually start.
I took the long route to the flying career, studying (and finishing those studies) as well as working as a flight attendant before doing my integrated ATPL training before turning 30. Now I've gone through some assessment centres just before the whole market more or less imploded and as it turns out, as of last week, I'm officially waitlisted with a Lufthansa Group Airline on a Jet AC. The whole process of sending out roughly 15 applications, getting responses, being invited to A/C etc. took about 4-5 months in total if there was a response at all from the respective airline.
The airline that gave me the green light now has no idea as to when they'll actually hire again but its a pretty decent position to be in. I'll probably go and work in my old line of work for a while while waiting for that gig to materialise eventually.
Thinking of what I'd do if I just came out of school and went into training to incur a debt of about 80.000EUR gives me the shivers... Having some sort of higher education to fall back to gave me some peace of mind at least. Money wise I would probably be worse off going for a pilots job anywhere else as there is absolutely more money in my old field but at the same time I have absolutely no drive to pursue a full time career in it. So leaving for passion is a common thing here...
To anyone still in the assessment grind I can only say: keep it up! Just look ahead and take one step at the time. Unfortunately it's just the way this industry works and times will hopefully get better soon. I'm gonna do some more A/C's as well and try to get something to bridge the gap until the opportunity mentioned above comes up.