Im in year 12 and would love to be an airline pilot too. What i have found is that pretty much every career i have looked into (Civil Engineering, Mining Engineering, Physics/maths teacher) everyone gets screwed over just like pilots do.
I have been looking into engineering cadetships and what they have on offer is much worse than the pilot cadetship schemes Jetstar and REX have on offer.
Most of the engineering cadetships on offer pay for you uni, you work for them for free in the school holidays, then when you graduate you earn $30k for 3 years.
I think everyone on pprune seems to forget that doesnt matter what career you are in, you have to start off at the bottom earning crap money.