To reply to you Dreamed2fly,
I will plagiarise a post from ACMS and Green Goblin as they mentioned some important points in there.
ACMS: a determination to succeed and never give up.
Green Goblin: patience and persistence
Read these two excerpts over and over again.
Most of us when starting our flying career looked for the ways to jump a few rungs on the ladder and climb up in the world of big shiny jets quickly.
There were some who managed to do it.....but most (myself included) didn't.
Personally, I have stepped up on pretty much every bloody rung above me, was never able to take two at a time. But along the way I have flown some very interesting operations and had some amazing flying experiences, and met some great mates. Now....I'm right where I want to be. Sitting in a hotel in hk, about to turn on the telly and hoping beyond all hope that the hbo channel has a good movie on it.
I never got a cadetship, never had a Dad who was a senior pilot etc etc.....
Very, very possible to achieve.....if.....you keep reading those two quotes mentioned above.
It's good that you are asking questions, looking for different ways to jump ahead; there's nothing wrong with that.
But also make plans to go the traditional way.
If you sit at home, send out resumes and wait for the magic call, you probably have about a 10% chance of succeeding in your career. But if you make plans to go the traditional route (instructing, flying up north etc), whilst also trying to jump rungs on the ladder then you probably have a 90% chance of succeeding in your career.
And above all else, keep reading those two quotes I nicked from the guys above.
Eternity.