I been hearing about the Great Pilot Shortage ever since I took my first flying lesson in 1974. I had a lot more flight time than 1500 hours before a Commuter would even answered my resume, telling me reapply when you got a 1000 hours twin time. This is so much BS. Some years back around 2007 I sent a resume as a lark to a Regional Jet Airline, I emailed a resume at 9 Am and the Chief Pilot was on the phone at 10 inviting me to interview. I went. I was also 52 at the time. I sat for the interview, it took maybe an hour, and offered me a class date, and they told me what the pay would be 19 an hour flight hour with a 65 hour min a month, I would be based at Midway Airport, at the time I held and ATP and a Bit over 14K for times. I could expect to upgrade to capt in 2 years. I said no. They were speechless. I knew it was BS before I even left to go, because the ticket they sent me had me changing airplanes 9 times to get to St. Louis. Go learn to fly because you want to and make a career out of it because you want to, not because some flight schools come up with this Pilot shortage business as a marketing tool. Pilots are a dime a bakers dozen in the United States and has been that way since the airplane was invented. It nothing new. Read Fate is the Hunter by Ernest K. Gann he writes about what a crap job it really is and all the interference by the government and he wrote about it 60+ years go, about how it was 70+ years ago, nothing changed.