This is a difficult one. All of the answers above could be right...and all could be wrong...because none of us can foresee the future.
Up to a couple of years ago, in the UK, there was work for new CPLs on the North Sea. So you could either work there, and then move on, or find some other job since other pilots were going there. Now that's not happening, there is very little work. With a CPL and low hours, you're very unlikely to find anything. With an instructor's rating and a few more hours, you might...but it's still not easy.
Now, things could change. But they might not. And none of us know.
Now it comes down to YOU. Would you rather have a secure job, be safe in the knowledge that you can pay the bills etc, but risk ending up at 70, thinking back, and saying: "If only...."?
Or would you rather risk everything for a dream, and maybe end up penniless, or more likely struggling from one badly paid, insecure, and dangerous job to another, with the romance of helicopter flying long buried under the realities of everyday life?
You might be lucky. Who knows. Life is a risky business. I might be "old", but in some ways I never grew up. I've always gone for the dream...and I've had many different dreams. It's sort of worked out...though most of my contemporaries have more to show for their lives in a material sense than I have. But I have my memories...though my memory's getting worse - must really be getting old
I wouldn't have done any of it any differently. But I'm me, and you're you. And this is a decision no-one else can make for you.
The middle way, as it were, is to go for the dream, but have a safety net. Get qualified in something that'll pay the bills, that'll always be needed, that doesn't pay too badly, that maybe you can do part time. IT, plumbing....whatever. You're young enugh to have time to do that.
And I agree with most of the other posts - if you decide to go for it, get the government to pay for your training...join the forces.
Good luck, whatever you decide to do.
