Ok, now we've finished discussing the differences between accountants and pilots, lets try and get back on track! I think too many people have been misunderstood on here and the trail has been further confused by the occasional crossover from the Professional Accountants Rumour Network.
Being honest, nobody should be telling anybody else NOT to do something. I think the point that has been made here is that you may find yourself somewhat disadvanted turning up for interview and being surrounded by people who talk 'vaguely knowledgeably' about the industry. Their lifelong passion to fly isnt necessarily what will get them through, but the knowledge/ideas that have been picked up along the way might.
This is just a disadvantage. This is not a reason for you not to get it. A colleague of mine used to be an estate agent, then worked as a salesman. He'd always liked the idea of flying so took it up. 10 years later, he's a Training Captain on an Airbus and flys regularly in his spare time. If you were to tell him he didn't want it enough, you'd probably earn yourself a slap! If you really throw yourself into it, you can get it and you can enjoy a very rewarding career at the end of it.
Advice - without the advantage of years of desire behind you, now is the time to make sure you do your homework. Some of these books on interview technique and aptitude questions are fairly useless, but some could save your bacon at an assessment centre. Definitely go and do a couple of trial flights, if for nothing else than to boost your own confidence and, hopefully, your desire.
The comments made earlier are correct, most pilots have wanted to fly all their lives (me included) but this only helps us because we have years of acquired knowledge when we get to interview. However, for somebody intelligent (as it sounds like you are), you can certainly learn enough by reading books, websites and monitoring great sites such as PPrune!
You may never know more than some of those you'll be up against but life experience can count for a lot and you may find that being a more rounded and worldly individual will leave you in a better position to do a training course than somebody who knows very little outside of their 'niche', i.e. aviation.
All anybody can do is their best and if you don't try you don't get. (ah, the cliches come out now!). Do your homework before you go and I wish you all the very best. Let us know how you get on!
FJ2k
Last edited by fastjet2k; 10th Nov 2004 at 23:41.