Air Inc- Waist of money?

[poppi]

I have admitted that the possession of a degree may open doors at a few select places of employment in the airline industry.

Talk about denial.
Fine, feel that way. While we are at the carriers not thinking about it.

 

[atrdriver]

I don't think airlines should require pilots to have a 4 year degree. High school, yes. College is definitely not that important when it deals with flying.

And yet, the people making the hiring decisions at the majors believe that it is.

 

[Scrapdog]

It has been posted that I am anti-college degree. Nothing cold is further from the truth.

If you are going to go to college, get a real degree from a real university. Do not spend four years getting a degree in Women’s Studies so you can apply at CAL.

The college degree has nothing to do with flying an airplane. Many have posted they agree it has nothing to do with the mastering on an airplane.

My advice is go to school part time or community college and fly, pilots get hired because they have flight time. Flt time moves you up the food chain to better jobs; the degree is not needed until the last step.

Old Yip - here we go again...I knew it would only take a few minutes before you tooted your horn.

Let's break this down - first of all, you are EXTREMELY anti-college. Take a look at every post you make that has to do with some sort of education. It's always completely pessimistic towards a pilot and the importantance of him getting a 4 year degree.

Secondly, you're right on the money. As I have said in my previous posts - if you're going to get a 4 year degree, do indeed get a solid diploma from a solid school. A 4 year degree in basketweaving is hardly going to help improve your worldliness and communication skills.

Third, again - I agree with you. As I said earlier, there really isn't much that college has to do with flying airplanes, especially the ones today that are so automated...the actual pilotage is almost taken completely out of the equation (except in circumstances of emergencies of course).

Last - what are you talking about? Didn't you just state in the same post that you need a solid 4 year degree if you're going to go and get your diploma? And now you mention "well, go ahead and try and get your comm college degree part time and fly..." Well, what is it? A solid 4 year degree or a community college associate degree? Now you're contradicting yourself here.

OK Yip, here's the bottom line. 172 airlines are hiring right now as you mentioned. Well, I can probably garuntee you more than half are small outfits with crappy pay and small to none benefit packages (retirement, etc...). Most people that fly strive to fly for a Major as the pinnacle to their career. I don't think there is probably 1 RJ guy out there that says "hmm, I'd like to fly for FDX one day, but I'll settle on Regional Airline X for the next 30 years of my life making 40,000 as a captain by the time I'm 55." (And I'm not using an RJ guy as a slam, I'm just proving a point - no offense at all intended fellas). Yip, come on dude get a grip - guys start at peanut airlines to make it the Majors one day - pure and simple. And guess what...the Majors that are hiring in the good ole' US and A either require or highly prefer a 4 year degree - and they should with good reason...they want the best well, rounded individual as their employee. The college degree is a huge portion of that well-roundedness. Flying a jet is fun making 50,000 with no college education, but it's a lot more fun doing that same job making 175,000 with a college education at a Major.

 

[Palmtree Pilot]

Original question... YES.

PtP

 

[N tha jungle]

Only a WAIST if you don't get the interview or job.

Actually it is not a waste of time or money if you are ALREADY competitive in your qualifications. It is not a magic pill to get you hired on the spot. However, we all know great places like AirTran, Southwest, and UPS have hundreds or thousands of quality resumes currently on file. Attending a Job fair with your airline of choice will definitely help get a foot in the door if you are competitive in their eyes.​

 

[Crossky]

And you wonder why some airlines consider a college degree "highly perferred". Too weed out saps like this!

Please educate yourself.

Have another slice of humble pie Vingus. The correct spelling of "perferred" is preferred.

I for one am a 'professional', and I'd like to go to the next air inc conference two.


ha ha psyche

 

[pilotyip]

For the “College Only” crowd, there are many ways to skin a cat, you have your way which you feel is the only way anyone should do things. "The way I did it". I do not agree with you, if my grandson elected to pursue a pilots career, I will recommend he not go to college full time, but follow the other time tested path where I have seen too many people succeed. That is fly full time, do your degree on the side, build time, build your resume. I will not debate the fall back value of a college degree, as I have stated many times it is nearly worthless after not being used for 20 years. Here are some of the latest Air Inc hiring stats from Kit. Percent of hires with no 4-yr degree, AirTran 12%, CAL 9%, DHL 33%, Jet Blue 18% and SWA 7%. Are those not good jobs? In addition, to take this one step further if 95% of the pilots applying have four yr degrees and those airline hiring non 4 yr degree pilots in the 7% to 33% range. It would tend to support that the degree is not all that important in getting a good airline job. Let me give you the background on the college degree thing. I do not judge a man by his degree, where he lives, or what he does for a living. I judge a man on the content of his character. I find the college degrees only crowd here, a bit arrogant, a smacking of if you do not have a degree you are not as good as me. I know too many people who are successful and fine men who do not have a degrees, I know many people with degrees who will never make any impact upon anything. I know too many pilots without degrees who I consider some of the most successful people I know I admire them and the lives they have built. So I bait, about the non-importance of the college degree in this business. I think this sets off the college degree only crowd because it distorts their view of what they have done. Secondarily my pilot heroes did not have college degrees and they performed feats that would test the metal of anyone. They flew in WWII, George Bush I in the Pacific, the 10,000’s of B-17 and B-24 pilots in Europe, and the C-46 pilots over the hump in China. I meet these guys on the air show circuit, they come to see the C-47 and B-17, and I ask them about their adventures during the war. I am in awe of what they did. How can anyone say these guys without degrees were not as good as today’s degreed pilots?

 

[sgu]

How about Air Inc's interview prep services? Has anyone had any experience with that?
As far as the fair goes, I have scored two interviews through them. The first was a bust but the second is upcoming quickly thus the prep.

 

[AV80R]

Which airline will you be prepping for?

 

[sgu]

United Parcel Service