First off, wanted to fly since 4 (?), 5 (?) years old!
Early 20s. Did not pass Class 1 medical. Laser eye surgery. One year later issued with Class 1.
Fail selection for sponsorship abinito training with European major. Bummer.
Still wanting to fly!
Uni. Aero Engineering major. Start gliding. Supermarket part time job to make end's meet and fund gliding.
PPL between 2nd and final year in US.
Hour building and ATPL groundschool.
IR in US. CPL in UK. ME/IR conversion in Espana.
While training for CPL get an interview for a BE200 corporate job. Pass it. Asked to show up for a second one after ME/IR part. Pass that too. Two weeks later management decide to get rid of airplane. Company would have paid for TR. Nice salary. Would have been too sweet.
Plan B had to be implemented. Had passed an interview for single engine freelance job earlier that year. Called those guys right after had been called by BE200 people. SE outfit had lost a guy so I get asked to start immediately. I relocate. Very little pay, great flying. Loving it.
Start applying on a massive scale now. Another interview for CRJ job. Pass CBT stuff, fail sim.
Another interview for TP regional. Pass all. Thrown in holding pool but never called to this day. Company about to to pack in.
Another interview, 757 job. No spare cash to do sim session beforehand so no surprise to fail sim. Trainers recommend to first learn the trade on TP equipment...
While still soaring the skies in my little SE call up a company doing survey work on a little bigger single and light twin. Asked to send in CV. Interview. Pass. Asked to drop by for test ride. Pass. They want to do another interview. Haggling over salary. Found common ground. Get offered job. About same time meet a guy who got me in line for another FO light twin job. No pay. Turn down the salary twin survey job as only VFR flying. I know, bit nuts though. Keep helping out the guys with the other light twin job for a few months. It's IFR multi pilot work so thought even though worse, or better say, non existing Ts and Cs (!) much better to learn the trade. Waiting for my turn. Turn never comes as applied for a temp job flying a vintage taildragger. Get it. While in the midst of working that gig another interview for another TP job pops up. Pass all. Get hired one month before taildragger contract ends. Company paid for TR.
Only a few months later laid off. World coming to an end but life had to go on.
Call light twin job people who I'd helped out and lucky me they were short of FOs that month. Asked to relocate. Get the job this time. Freelance, very little pay.
Been a helluva ride so far without much pay but have loved every single hour. Take away flying and I'd go nuts...
To all those wannabes, keep on keeping on!