The traditional advice was always to "Get a trade".
I know a chap that left school with about 1.5 GCSE's. He had no idea what he wanted to do with his life, (tbh I was a bit like that 33 years ago, and in some ways I still am...) but in order to "do something" he went to the local college to study plumbing and central heating, which is a market that will never dry up. He got the qualifications and safety certifications (he reckoned it was "difficult" but compared to an ATPL maybe not so much) , His Mum and Dad set him up with tools and a van (much cheaper than an ATPL) and he's never looked back. Now, 15 years later he has a thriving small business, revenue for his work I'd reckon £1600 a week on average with 85% of that profit. He chooses the hours that he works, and is motivated by the fact that the more he works the more money he makes (unlike a salary where people are squeezed for every drop of juice with nothing extra in return). His phone is always ringing with fresh work, to the point where his poor old Mum is now his "booking agent"! Roofers do even better apparently and can pretty much pick their jobs and name their price because so few want to do it. The traditional benefits of being an employee, i.e a known regular income, has evaporated in recent years, even before COVID, due to zero hours contracts and the end of occupational pensions.
Of course a lot of people won't want to do this kind of thing because it involves physical graft, and it's not sitting on their backside in a flightdeck looking at the clouds below (I wouldn't want to do it either, I eschew all physical exercise beyond walking, swimming and sex!) it's certainly as far from glamourous as can be and the upper middle class customers often treat you like sh!t apparently. But society will always NEED tradespeople, society doesn't "need" air travel, especially with the easy free global communications we have now. It is and in many ways always has been a discretionary purchase.
My advise these days is to provide a product or a service that people will always need and want, whatever the signs of the times, and do it for yourself, not for the enrichment of your employer. At least have it as a fallback even if you do something else too.
Last edited by Private jet; 1st Aug 2020 at 13:53.