Not a lot to add, save that people do often - for some reason - think that those who went before "just didn't work hard enough at it" and that they can therefore succeed where others have failed (or are still trying) by "working a bit harder".
To provide some form of context, on my course, the class JAA ATPL average was 95% across the 14 exams. Can you do much better than that? I doubt many people can, but even if you can score 96/97/98 or even better % - does that substantially differentiate you? No. Many of our course got first time or first series passes in both CPL and the IR. Can you do better than that? No.
The truth is there just are not [many] jobs around at the moment and there's 20 of us chasing every single one that DOES get out. The ONLY way to get a job really at the mo, is to know the person who is hiring.
A lot of people wibble on about the fact that there ARE other types of flying jobs out there ...but the truth is - and welcome to reality here guys - that unless you are very very wealthy, you need to work to live and the kind of salary these jobs pay is so small as to make the job virtually impossible to take. And that's if you have no debt. If you do have debt, forget it, because you'll be living in a cardboard box and unsafe to fly within weeks.
I'm not kidding you - I'm one of the lucky ones, In that I had a very good career to fall back on. 18 months later and I'm still flying a desk, but at least I still have my house and no debt. You need oodles and oodles of timing and luck to get on in this game as WELL as the other factors such as desire. Do NOT underestimate that. Or if you do, make sure you very well understand the lifelong implications of financial meltdown.
It IS a dream and I would generally encourage people to go for it (PPRuNe IS very negative) but do not underestimate just HOW lucky you're going to have to be to get a job in the current market, competing against HUNDREDs of others in the same boat. Advice by the likes of G-SXTY here is invaluable - heed their words, because they know of what they speak.
Last edited by clanger32; 17th Jun 2010 at 13:35.