soloflyer, I am just glad that I can "save" at least one from the tyranny that is the j* cadet scheme. Unfortunately scheme such as this have found a way to commercialise the dream of flying. It is now a financial commodity, with a hefty price.
Please make no mistake, there are no shortcuts in aviation. You have can rapid progression, you can have good T&C's, but, (with a few exceptional) you can't have both. It has been this way for a long time, in fact since the dawn of aviation.
QF had a cadet scheme in the late 60's, some of those cadets weren't employed until the early 80's, cadets in the early 90's had a few years out of the industry. Most late 90's cadets had two years in GA. Many who took the GA route struggled financially for years before getting a good job.
Almost every ex-military guy has had a good mate killed, one remarked that he had been to over 30 funerals for pilots killed on service.
This is a brutal industry. This is a 24/7/365 business. You can expect to spend 40% of your weekends at work, miss the celebrations of life with your friends & family. It is disorderly shift work where the flight & duty times are not based on the science of sleep, rather what is commercially advantageous for the operator.
These things may not seem important to you now, but there will be a time in your life that they will. There will be a time when you have responsibilities, financial commitments, seek to have a roof over your families head & some financial security. I suspect that many who choose to ignore the downsides to this industry will wake up, aged 40 & wonder where it all went wrong. Sure they might be in the left hand seat of a jet, but at a huge cost to the things that really matter in life. Sitting in a jet wears off after a period of time, & I'm yet to meet a professional pilot who violates this rule.
Airlines simply can't cut fuel, maintenance & aircraft costs, so even though a pilots wage is small in the scheme of the overall cost, it is something that can be attacked. Airline managers can now see pilot training simultaneously as a revenue stream & a way to lower their wage cost even further (JFO's).
I look around the world at trends elsewhere, to see where things are headed, in the US you have
pilots on food stamps, in the UK you have
CTC bankrupting cadets. Pilots are so easy to exploit simply because they have a large training debt.
If you really want to get into this industry, go out to the mines, earn the big dollars on a FIFO contract. Spend the time back in the capital cities to do your theory courses (CPL & ATPL). You will experience several things that are similar to aviation, shift work & lots of time on you own away from friends & family. Use this time to study, learn, save. Once you the money in the bank, you will then know yourself & know whether this is the industry for you, If you decide it is go for it. If not, you will have a deposit for a house & be much wiser, good luck with whatever else you choose.
Don't get into this industry on credit, you will forever have to pay the piper. Once you sign on the dotted line, there is no way back.
Don't buy the illusion, there are no shortcuts in aviation.