I would tell anyone who loves flying to become a doctor and get a private pilot certificate. Buy your own plane if you can afford it, or rent through a club.
It always surprises me that hardworking people are somehow looked down upon in this industry by the starry-eyed "dream guys" as if you're not entitled to flying your jet unless you come close to ejaculation during every preflight inspection.
There are people in this world who fly airplanes because they enjoy the total package it offers, ie a reasonable workload Vs compensationa and benefits. The conditions of this job will be reduced until these people are no longer interested and we are left with ONLY the "I've wanted to fly since I was 5 and I've been making airplane models and flying flight sim ever since" people. Nobody else will want to do it. Who knows what the conditions will have to stoop to before these dreamers say enough is enough as well.
So I would do this, ask yourself very carefully why it is that you think that you want to be a pilot first. Be honest with yourself and above all be prepared to live a life that is nothing like that of your friends. Having a normal life whatever that is, will most likely not be possible and when it all gets tough, when you're sitting on a ramp in some forgotten corner in china with a slot looking at email photos of your friends having a summer bbq back home you will need to draw upon a whole lot of "lifelong dream" fuel to still think it's worth it. Or when you get the "we need to talk" call from your girlfriend back home who's starting to wonder why she's together with a guy who's only home 2-3 days a week with maybe one weekend a month.
No matter that the industry is bigger and there are more jobs available. The fact is that the really attractive jobs, especially in Scandinavia, are few and hard to get. A small % of pilots will get there, for the remaining bulk there is chasing a decent living in a game of constant musical-chairs around the world as airlines furlough and hire.
If you read through all this and think, wow what a cool journey then you probably have the demeanor to enjoy life as a pilot.
Just trust me on this, the novelty of the actual flying part fades. It's a fact. Your focus as you get older will be to get a stable career offering something that approximates a "normal" life, a life where you don't see you kids grow up via e-mail, where friends stop remembering to call you. THIS is the hard part about flying. It's not to make a good landing, or to pass a type rating, or even get the ATPL to begin with. The hard part is to fashion an actual life around your career. You may end up a snazzy captain making good money flying for a good company out of your own country and enjoying life. You may end up in a duct-taped 727 in Lagos at age 35 wondering wtf happened too. Just be prepared is all I'm saying. Unfortunately it's kind of built in to the psyche of the young dreamer not to pay attention to this sort of talk. It's as if the words of an experienced pilot trying to balance their look on this career are suspicious. "He wouldn't be trying to convince me that the job can be **** unless.... unless it really IS the best job in the world!" Why would anyone try to con you? The -50s glamor is gone, for many people it's just a daily grind now, the fact that your office goes up and down isn't important anymore. You'll wish you could control your life like you control the plane but you can't.
Last point. If you become a pilot, you career will dictate your life. You won't, your job will and that won't change. Ever.
Now having said that, I'm not sure what else I'd rather be doing
