Keep in mind that there's alot of bitterness on these forums and for good reason. This isn't one of the "dont become an airline pilot" posts.

The industry has been rocked to the core from 9/11, poor management, the world wide economic calapse, and the change in retirement age. There has been no movement for years and if you were stuck in a low paid regional FO slot or out on the street, it has been very painful. It reminded those, that this is a very cyclical industry. Timing is everything. Just like timing the stock market, there's no real way to redict if your timing was good or bad until it's too late.

As one of the 2% that got a job without a four year degree, go get a degree. My life would have far easier had I had one. Keep in mind that with 13,000 TT and 15 years flying wide body DC-10's and MD-11's, I can't meet the minimums at FedEx. I don't have a four year degree.

Far too many were sucked into the "pay per view" flight training programs. It might have worked out had life not happened. The main reason why those schools worked out was because the pilot treadmill was running at full steam. Waiting years to build time would have put you thousands of senority numbers behind. The downsize was the huge debt load placed on the shoulders of guys who didn't realize that they were going to be stuck in a very low pay job for many years. They were screwed. Since the airlines aren't hiring, there's no reason to go to a pilot puppy mill. Take your time and pay cash for your training. You can even go to college, get a job on the side and learn to fly. The good news is that very few are doing this now.

Air transportation isn't going away. Our nation is built on a safe, reliable air transportation. There's no high speed rail coming and you can't drive across the country for vacation. Boomers want to see Paris and their grandkids. Somebody will be flying them.

If you take a longer view of the history of airline pilots, you'd see that we weren't always the super highly paid professionals of the day. Sure, they made good money, just not great. The problem now is that the days of a pilot making $250-300K are gone. I don't think you'll see them come back. It's still a good job. Not as good as in the haydays, but still far from digging ditches on the side of the road. Some question wheather the sacrifices are worth it. The problem is that this is a mirky and can only be answered by the individual.