College Vs. Regionals

[vectorvictor]

You have to decide on what you want to be a college graduate or a pilot. If is a pilot, you fly airplanes and build resume stuff. It will take approximately 10 years to get to a career position in aviation. You have to commit to the time frame to make it. If you elect after 5 years to get out of flying to pursue your major in college, you will be five years behind that year's college grads. To not fly and get a full 4 yr degree may be fun but it does nothing for your flying career. Now to get a degree on the side while you are flying, nothing wrong with that. However, the fallback value of a degree is greatly over rated. I have BS and a Master's in Management, 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. However, they do not teach school in the summer so I had to take the cargo job. 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, and plumbing 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 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-aviation job market after being out of college 20-30 years?

To each their own I suppose. I enjoyed my four years at school getting a non-aviation degree and I think the experience was invaluable in helping me mature. I'm not saying you can't be successful without a degree, nor is it the end-all measure of a persons intellect; but IMHO it is four years well spent. I do however agree with you, after a period of time following graduation the value of your degree fades away.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

Attending college is not necessarily about procuring employment in a particular field. It also cultures and edifies your understanding of the world through a variety of disciplines.

One thing to consider is that you might lose your medical, get furloughed or decide that professional flying isnt for you. It might be difficult to earn a degree if you're a bit older and bogged down with a wife and kid, trying to obtain employment elsewhere. Get college out of the way now while you're still young and in learning mode. The regionals will always be hiring.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

...and for God sakes, you now potentially have 5 more years to continue flying.