Is pilot still considered as a viable career?

[clunckdriver]

As one who in the past owned five flight schools and a charter OC may I make some observations?
Firstly a statement which judging by the threads on this post many will have trouble beliving. All our grads who wanted to fly for a living have done so! How did this happy state of affaires come about? Firstley, my wife and I had a policy of hiring our own grads whenever we could, some did not make the cut, not based on their piloting abilities but more on their demonstrated attitudes and deportment, ie no smokers or cronic complainers {there seem to be no shortage of these on PPrune!}
Secondly we directed them to the slots in aviation that we thought would suit them, such as Survey, Floats, Corporate,Airlines, Medivac, fire bombing and any of the other slots that in Canada we are fortunate to have, unlike the EU and UK who seem to be bent on destroying anything which isnt airline. We also tried to turn out grads who could look after the aircraft when away from base, Im totally amazed that some schools turn out grads who cant even tie down an aircraft or do basic maintainance in the field. On this subject when potential employers phoned rarely would they ask about the pilots ability to fly, rather they would want to know if the pilot could be left to manage the aircraft. The other point is that we tried to place them in jobs which have a future, by this I mean the following, in what areas does the aircraft have a firm future? lets see now, will Canada ever have roads going way North? NO! Will the small Northern comunities ever have enough doctors, medical facilities, will survey ever be done totally by satalites or prospectors on foot? NO, Will tourists walk miles through the bush to go hunting/fishing?NO! Is domestic short haul flying under presure from other forms of travel? Not in Canada, {Our rail sytem has been totally trashed} but Im one of the many who when in the EU take the train rather than the airlines if its under 500 miles.
So where does this lead us to? How about looking around the world and moving somewhere in an area where the aircraft is not in danger of being replaced by high speed rail or other forms of travel, which in the case of most of the wanabees in the EU means packing ones bags and moving out, there will still be long haul, I doubt there will ever be a tunnel under the Atlantic.
The irony these days is that in Canada various provincial governments are getting into flight training, {and making a total cock up of it by the way} and are directing all there training efforts towards an airline path, in the mean time jobs in the other 75% of aviation go unfilled or finish up hiring the wrong pilots.So, to sum up, if one wants to stay home in the UK or EU ones chances of a full time flying job are pretty slim, so look around and go where the aircraft will be around for a while, will it be easy? NO, do we in Canada and other parts of the world have too many wanabees? Yes we do, but at least the prospects are there and so far we have avoided the P2F mess.
Just as an end note, back in the fifties I was about to start pilot training in the British military, then a White paper came out which destroyed much of the industy in the UK, I took my option and went elswhere,{Got some very good advice on this from a brother in law Bomber Command vet} lived in three Comonwealth countries and others, never looked back, good luck to all of you trying it!Its a bit like real estate, Location, Location, Location!