Hey mate...
If you really feel that it is what you want to do I would never put someone off going for that goal... I believe that MOST people can do anything they set their mind on if they have a certain amount of intelligence, diligence and most of all determination(and money!)
I started my Commercial training when I set out on a distance learning course from Bristol Groundschool in 2004(Age 30). I passed all my exams in Spring 2005 and went to European Flight Training for my CPL training...
Worked hard over the Winter of 05/06 and went to get MEP/IR in May 2006 followed immediately by MCC training...
It wasn't until 6 months after completing my fATPL that the reality of the job market dawned on me which was a far cry from the optimistic picture I'd painted myself... 100's of emails sent with carefully scripted cover letters and designed cv's and maybe 1 in 100 answers basically saying thanks but no thanks...
Basically its all a matter of demand and supply... There are 100's of trained pilots out there looking for work at the same time as you... You need to try to get ahead of everyone else in the que.
The only way to do this is to instruct or do some aerial photography flying etc... However even these jobs are difficult to come by so be prepared to graft in order to get ahead...
I personally went and got an Instructors rating and worked as an Instructor for 3 years before recently getting my 1st jet job...
FYI.. I only started getting positive responses from sending CV's when I had got about 1000 hrs...
The real key to this is getting to know people in the industry and showing that you are determined to get there...
I spent 3 years as a full time instructor which got me a fair amount of of hours and gave me the confidence to keep pushing forward with my goal. However I was earning a sub 20k salary(this is a good instructors salary!) and my life had essentially been on hold for 5 years...
My break came when I decided to stop instructing and get a ground based job with a biz jet operator at Uk's busiest biz jet airfield..
This was last November and I was offered my 1st jet job in July. Funnily enough not with the company that were going to give me a job but with another company on the airfield which I acquired through meeting people there...
So.... in answer to your questions... I would recommend it wholeheartedly because the end goal when achieved is so rewarding..
However be prepared to not only have to face alot of adversity but also to have to spend alot of money(40k+ for modular) Most likely especially with your age you will prob need to pay for a TR... (depending on aircraft but entry level biz jet 10-15k or 320,737, 25-30k..
Saying all this. This is my experience... I heard of people having to do what I've done over 7 years whilst I was training and remember thinking.. that won't happen to me! I'll get lucky and have a job within 6 months to a year.. with 250 hrs! How wrong was I!! In truth I do know people who did get lucky and got employed with Airlines within 6 months of finishing training but they did ALL pay for Type ratings... around 25k as far as I remember... Unfortunately I didn't have this at the time so was unable to go down that road...
If you need any more information feel free to contact me..
Good luck with it all... It's all very worth while in the end!
