Necessity is the mother of invention.

Looking at the FAA Regs and the cost of getting from point A (no pilot Cert) and point B (Airline job with major 121 carrier) there are cost effective ways to achieve point B.

One way, pay the $100,000 for someone to spoon feed you the info while holding your hand and taking your hard earned money and future money.

Another way, is to save your money and do some research. Sniff around the local FBO and search for airplane partnerships in an instrument rated Cessna 150/172 or like ac. It’s quite common. But do your due diligence on the maintenance condition of the airplane (have a mx inspect the ac, the logs, and knows the AD’s on that aircraft....it’s cheaper than the $100k Route and will save you coin down the line). Opportunities are out there, you have to have the ambition to find them.

Generally, paying an instructor to teach you in your own (partnership) airplane will reduce the $100,000 price tag by 75%. During your time getting your Private Pilot Cert, you’ll meet people renting ac, paying significantly more per hour. Once the 2 of you have your respective Licences, you can legally invite them to fly to a destination of 1-3 hours away and your new bud pays for the gas/oil and acts as a safety pilot, while you wear the foggles. Once at the destination and he/she refuels/oil in ac, switch seats with them flying using foggles and you as safety pilot. Both legally log the hours, their normal rental time of an aircraft at $100/hour is cut to $25/hr. Your normal $35/hr (having partnership/ownership in ac) reduces down to $10/hr (insurance, mx costs, tie down/hangar costs). It’s a win-win for both of you. The upfront capital in the aircraft, think of it as a savings account. You will eventually sell your share of the ac and get the Lions share or potentially more depending on your due diligence in the beginning.

I was able to get a private pilot, IFR, and many hours towards my Commerical/IFR License using this technique. Then did the 10 hours training for the multi rating. Explained to Examiner, I wanted to lump my Multi-engine, IFR, Commercial rating all into 2 checkrides. Normally, it’s 3. For the Commercial License, part of the checkride has to be in a “complex” aircraft and the other part can be in cheaper non complex aircraft. I used the twin as the complex and the IFR Rated Cessna 150 as the platform for the training and check ride for maneuvers required in Commercial rating. The above techniques saved me well over $10,000 in the early 1990’s when airplanes rented for less than half of today’s prices. If your employer offers tuition reimbursement for education, you may be able to utilize these benefits as well.

Like a previous poster said, at 23-24 you are well positioned time wise. Find your path and start taking more steps. Generally speaking, the biggest obstacle to this career is a person’s lack of persistence and apathy.