ThePotato 232 was quite correct.
With Flight Recruitment secretarial staff (some have no idea what a P-3 or a C-2 is, or anything about flying) facing large piles of applications, they usually prefer a college degree, but most upper airline management types consider us all over-paid blue-collar workers.
If the "blue-collar" phrase is difficult to believe, then look at jet salaries, and
compare them to the pay back in about '95-2000 for flying between the same cities on a mainline jet. You will never again see $100/hour for a narrowbody FO seat on domestic US city-pairs, unless there is Fedex cargo in back. Companies like Mesa will keep salaries rock-bottom, whether flying the CRJ or the glittering fly-by-wire EMB-170/190. So why will the other operators be willing to pay young pilots anywhere near a major airline salary?
The more 737s and DC-9s disappear to the desert for parking or destruction, the more often a paycheck (your future paycheck) will be about a third of what we earned, and not many years ago. Many jet FOs earn little more than minimum wage. Where will the reward be, other than the ego which becomes desensitized after a while? The dollars paid for the 20% medical and dental deductibles will be going up, as the FO seat pays about minimum wage. Good luck with a young family
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Based upon airline corporate (culture) history, the only fairly safe career aviation path in the US is with Southwest, UPS, Fedex, or other cargo airlines. Flying as a civilian pilot for the US government, i.e. Customs, or the DEA etc might also be a good direction. Be wary about the State Department. An FO with whom I worked back in April was in Africa for a while for his previous job, paid via Evergreen. He flew interesting missions for the State Department
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I will be glad to leave this business in a few years (if possible) at age 55.