There is no such thing as a 'menial job' to the person who needs that job and is prepared to roll up his/her sleeves to get on and do it. If anyone does 'decry' a tradesman's job, I just hope that they think very carefully about that when they need that tradesman to do some important work for them.
If O'Leary did say that airline pilots are "glorified taxi drivers", he was wrong. bizjet pilots are more like "glorified taxi drivers"; airline pilots are more like "glorified bus/train drivers". (My daughter calls me a "glorified postie", which I find amusing, not 'degrading'!)
An interesting comparison: I know someone who was an accountant and is now an electrician and is doing very well out of it. Quite some time ago he moved countries and to 'convert' qualifications from his old trade of electrician or later profession of accountant would have been months compared with years. Being an electrician was his first choice and that is where he is. (Would that be the accountants' equivalent of PilotLZ's advice about getting your 'second qualification' first?) Now does it take months or years to convert a pilot's qualification from one country to another? (Having done so myself, I can tell you that it is not years!) I will say again, there is no such thing as a 'menial' job to the person who needs that job and is prepared to do it, just as that it in not a 'menial' job to the person who urgently needs it done (like unblocking that drain that was blocked with too much cr*p?).
So please do not decry anyone on here asking for or giving advice to anyone wanting to put effort into to finding other ways of making ends meet when this industry, or the circumstances surrounding it, bowls one of those nasty spin balls their way.
Good luck everyone. If you put the right efforts in now with a good 'frame of mind' whatever you do, you will be able to look back in ten years time at these really extreme conditions and think "yes, I got through that". Do whatever it needs (as long as it is legal!) and don't be put off by someone 'looking down his nose' at you. You could end up a lot happier with life than they are.