If you want a career as a pilot for a major airline or cargo operator (like FedEx), you should get a college degree, and get pilot certificates. You can do both in the same period.
The traditional (meaning it works well for the majority of folks) path is to get your:
- private pilot certificate (allows you to fly single engine little planes in good weather)
- your instrument rating (allows you to fly in clouds)
- commercial certificate (allows you to be paid to be a pilot)
- multi-engine rating (allows you to fly airplanes with more than one engine)
- Flight instructor certificate (allows you to teach people to fly - this is generally the first "real" flying job for folks)
- Instrument instructor (allows you to teach people to fly on instruments)
- Multiengine instructor (allows you to teach people to fly multiengine airplanes)
You can do all of this in your "spare" time in college or during summers, and teaching lets you build your flight experience (airlines look for how many hours of flight experience you have). Then when you graduate, you can look for an entry level airline job, probably with a regional airline. From that point, seniority rules, and you can bid for bigger planes or bigger jobs (like captain) as you get experience.
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So, what sort of college education? There are schools that will let you major in "professional pilot" programs. Many people (myself included) recommend majoring in something "other" than aviation so that you'll have something to fall back on if the airline market is down, or you get laid off.
You need to be able to pass a medical exam, which also means you need to lay off any illegal drugs you may have experimented with, for at least a couple of years before the first exam, and you'll need to be clean from that point forward. Alcohol problems are another no-no.
Finally, the days of Airline captains making HUUUUUGE salaries are gone, at least in the USA. Airlines tend to cycle between boom and bust, and you can be at the top of the seniority list at one carrier, have it go bust, and have to start over. Or your airline could merge with another airline and you'd have the joy of being "integrated" into a new seniority list.
I hope this is helpful.