Pretty much every CRJ captain at SkyWest makes significantly more than I did as an engineer, and some of those pilots don't even have college degrees. Heck, I turned down a pretty solid corporate pilot career track to start over at a regional. It was a gamble, and hopefully it pays off. If it doesn't, I will find something else to do that does.
I really don't mean for this to sound elitist, because that's not me. But I WILL make things happen, one way or another. That's just how I am. It may or may not involve aviation, and that's the key to this business... Always have the ability (and the power) to walk away until you've at least landed the "career" position.
As far as people whining about hight debt during entry level years in aviation - duh! I don't have any sympathy. When I started out on aviation almost 10 years ago, there was PLENTY of info out there about the fallacy of starting out in aviation with high debt. If you chose to ignore that, that was YOUR decision.