Hi Phil, I've already been down that road. I'd been flying since the age of 16 and only decided to try a "change of professional direction" at the age of 30. Now finished, I've been job hunting for nearly two years.
Here's my advice :
1.
Have a plan B. I run my own business which I continued to run whilst training part time. After finishing I just stepped the business back up.
2. Be prepared to not get a flying Job (see point 1), 2+ years seems to be very common without even an interview. What tends to happen is that just as you think you're getting close, an airline goes bust somewhere and you find yourself at the back of a queue behind 200 experienced pilots.
3. Don't underestimate just how much it's all going to cost, and how painful those payments are going to be. On top of keeping current (e.g. 50 hours in the preceding 12 months for FlyBe). (see point 1).
and most importantly....
4. take a long hard look at the reality of the Pilot profession these days, and where it is going, its changed radically in the past 5 years (see point 1 again):
Take a look at these jobs :
A320
Senior First Officer -
€20,000
A320 First Officer - Europe with Storm McGinley | 1401343067
McDonalds Trainee Manager -
€22,930
Trainee Business Manager :: McDonalds.co.uk
"change of professional direction"? Pilot? That new direction would be
down then?!
People will tell you it's not all about money, if you want to fly you'll do it for free - and people do, and that is the problem. That's why experienced airbus drivers earn less than an 17 year old trainee on their very first day dropping burgers (because they haven't even learnt how to flip them yet).
So financially, moving from any form of stable job/career/business is madness. Just as Waco stated. The figures speak for themselves.
Personally, I'm glad I did it. And I'd do it again. Would I want to work for €20,000? No. But I probably would :-)