Career
Glen, just curious, what is it you studied and how long ago was it? How many of your job applications have resulted in interviews? If the answer is 'not many' then perhaps your CV needs some work.
You gotta be flexible sometimes to work in ops, the jobs aren't always where you might want them to be, ask anyone who's been in it a while. For those in possession of 'Brass ones', it can take you all over the world.
And it is a career but you need to have the smarts, determination and ambition to make it so. In every profession there are those who make it towards and sometimes all the way to the top and there are others who by bad luck(especially through choice of employer) or other reasons remain in the lower echelons.
Getting a foot in the door in an airline is a step in the right direction but it really is an open ended thing and when a job opens up in ops you can often be part of a very long queue to get it, especially in parts of the world where the job is still not licenced. You could be there for years.
Happy hunting.
D.O.G