Being an airline pilot requires a skill set quite different from any other occupation; academic qualifications or time needed to qualify are irrelevant.
Academic qualifications simply aren't required (14 O & A levels and an Honours degree doesn't mean you can handle a V1 cut and get it back on the ground in one piece) and the mental effort expended in a 4 hour simulator detail can't be compared to a classroom or any other learning environment.
As for my take home pay, that's between me, payroll and the tax man. Unlike many pilots these days, I'm well and properly renumerated, and every once in a while, by golly I earn my money
