4 year degree

[saviboy]

Hi I am currently working on a 4year degree in management and also instructing to build my time.
I am getting a bachelor's degree "just in case" my pilot carreer has to stop for some reasons.
What are the odds of getting a management job with no previous experience at around let's say 35.(I am currently 30)
A lot of poeple are getting degrees in case they lose their medical or are furloughed. I am trying to find out what are the chances of getting a good job in a field that is not necessairly your field of expertise.
thanks

 

[pilotyip]

5 years?

If you are only going to give a flying career a five year shot, there is good chance you will not get very far. The fallback valve of old degree is questionable. I have BS and a Master's, but at age 53 I was making $250/wk loading cargo. After Zantop pretended to go out of went out of business in 1997, I had been a temporary High School Chemistry Teacher up until two weeks before the cargo job came along. But they do not teach school in the summer. The value of an unused degree is highly over rated. 53 year old unemployed airline pilots are not eagerly greeted in any industry that I know of, even of having a couple degrees. Of course I did not apply for many of the "College degree preferred jobs" such as apt manager, telephone direct sales, plumping floor manager at Home Depot, etc. If you get a college degree you have to use the knowledge gained in college to develop a career or the degree is basically useless. After getting a degree, flying an airplane is not a knowledge expanding experience; it is skill development experience. Anyone care to chime in and share their experiences on entering the non-avaiton job market after being out of college 20-30 years?

 

[saviboy]

thanks for the reply.
5 years was just a random number . I could have picked ten.

 

[Some guy]

I keep hearing about the degree in basket weaving. What schools have basket-weaving as a major¿?

 

[Hugh Jorgan]

Why the University of Central Arkansas, of course.
http://www.uca.edu/divisions/academic/honors/pub/vino/0203/vino21_4.1/newDegree.htm

 

[Some guy]

Thanks for the info!! Do they have online basket-weaving classes?

 

[MICK]

Pilotyip hit the nail on the head! A 4yr degree is good to fill the square on the airline application, but if you dont have any experience using it...it dosent do a lot of good.

I was furloughed in Feb 2002. I have a BS in Business Administration. At the time of my furlough there werent many flying jobs to be had. So I looked in the private sector. You name it I applied for it. Most places would look at what I used to do (fly for an airline) and would say why dont you just get another flying job?.....Duh! I finally got a job driving a city bus for $10.50/hr. And the only reason I believe I got that job is because the manager always want to be a pilot and we hit it off.

My advice is if you want to fall back on your degree get some experience using it!

 

[FurloughedAgain]

YIP,

Was the masters degree of any use to you? I've been considering an MBA just to enhance my qualifications in case the poo hits the preverbial fan once again. I honestly dont know, however, what doors this might open for me.

Thanks

 

[pilotyip]

Yes, I think the Master's in Business help me get promoted in the Navy Reserve, and I did start my own business once when I was between jobs. I understood the legal basis of business, could read an accounting statement, understood finance, I really liked statistics, the degree was a great help in starting my business. I also used it Chief Pilot, Director of Training positions, budgeting, projection models. Etc. I think it helps in your investing decisions and running a household.

 

[pilotyip]

Mick, sounds like you have been there and done that. It is hard to get an employer to look at you seriously for a job outside of aviation once you have made a living flying airplanes.