I am 34 years old now...my objective is to work with a major in Europe before I am 40.
What if I fly for netjets on Falcon or Global Express at the start of my career
LOL! Monsieur, dude, are you for real?!
You should appreciate the majority of people will have to work/wait for years, if not decades, on getting hired by the majors such as BA. Not very few people will even have to work their entire careers on eventually getting hired on a 737/320 with a smaller operator. It's absolutely delusional to think, and simply false, to expect this happening right at the start of your career. I have several friends, who have all forked out the 50k plus on their training with exactly that mindset, and guess what they are doing today? Erm no, not flying.
NetJets is one of, if not
the most prestigious, bizjet operator in Europe and the US. 3-4 years ago, before the crisis hit, their requirements were 1,500h total, of which 500 had to be flown on twin aircraft. A few people managed to get in with those 500h flown on aircraft such as a Mr. Cessna's Crusader, etc. Unthinkable today. Not only are they not hiring but also working off a huge backlog of pilots sent on leave. I got the thinking, should they ever take on new guys in the foreseeable future, it will be those with TP and jet experience. Not to mention ex military. And they will have on-type hours well over 1,000. No chance of competing with them as a rookie. Unless you know Mr. chief pilot himself? Somehow I doubt you do.
My genuine advice to you is, go try to get in with CTC and/or BA as a cadet (if you do not exceed their age limit). I believe there's some form of other sponsorships out there, e.g. Atlantic Airlines? Should that not work out for you, do it on your own by going MODULAR. Get your ATPLs out of your way while you keep working your IT job. It might take a little longer and will be exhausting but you will not lose any money. Maybe even downgrade to a 50% contract? When your exams are sat and passed take 3-6 months leave and ge the rest of your training done, e.g. CPL, ME, IR, MCC. Where, you will have to find out yourself. There is pros and cons to every option and a lot of literature can be found on the Net and here. I suggest you do a lot of research beforehand. Most important rule IMHO: try to get it as cheap as possible. I know people are going to shoot me down now, but I have flown with integrated grads from the presumably leading UK FTO and I was not impressed. In fact, I was a bit shocked as they did not know some of the most simple things, yet they had paid 30k more than me. Do read a lot, talk to as many people as you can, and maybe even visit a few schools to make a sensible decision, which suits you best. Come to think now, going integrated does have one important benefit: it might give you an interview at the end of it. So you see, lots to think about.
Oh, yes, when training, especially abroad, please do yourself a favor and follow rule #1: never ever pay upfront!
Lastly, be prepared financially
and emotionally to work badly paid jobs in the beginning after school. Pay you cannot, or at best, hardly live on. Also, keep in mind, preparing for
and attending interviews might cost you up to another five grand before securing that first elusive job (a pre sim session can easily amount to 700-1,000). Overheads no school will ever make mention of. The license is just the ticket for your apprenticeship.
It's a rocky road my friend. And as one captain once said to me, not the best will make it but those who try the hardest.
Personally, I have made only around ten grand with flying so far in three years since coming out of flight school, but I have always managed to secure flying jobs and loved every single minute of it. Only God knows where this will take me but rest assured, if I would be given the call again, whether to go or not to go, I sure as hell would do it all over again.
Bonne chance!
