GogglesPisano said:
Get a degree first. And nothing having anything remotely to do with aviation -- unless it's aeronautical enginering.
NOOOOOO...BAD advice. The market for aero engineers is dismal. The working conditions are horrible and the job..well, basically SUCKS. Those who do get a job have the same attitude as the people in this indsutry with SJS. This whole 'if I chug it two more years I won't be junior anymore...just hold on one more year".... and they say that all the way to their layoff. In many respects the aero engineering market is very similar to the airlines: it requires mobility, because it's not a question of "would you be laid off?" rather it's a question of "when? and where do I go next?". If ya really want a marketable engineering degree go get an industrial engineering degree, and there you can work in the first thing that falls on your lap. After all, you aren't getting it because it's your passion, right?
Besides, the point is moot anyways, for somebody who is trying to get a degree in "something else"
to mitigate the fact that their one passion in life has negative returns on investment (ain't life a b!tch) aero engineering is about the worst pursuit one could devise...trust me I know
get a nursing degree and call it a day.
To be honest, I just don't buy the whole "backup career" argument altogether. To me that's just hair-splitting, I know plenty of people who got sick of the corporate gig, hell look at aviation and all the middle 30's career changers and the [career-changer]-backchangers! LOL apparently the backup value of that degree wasn't THAT great if it got you jumping industries like it's cinco de mayo.
To address the argument somebody made previously about the value of the name of the univeristy as it relates to your job prospects, gimme a freggin' break. That's an irresponsible generalization. In 7 years I have learned a lot from academia, being in both sides of the classroom, and I can tell you that rankings is what makes them money. It's not that the name of the college doesn't matter, it matters to an extent, but it's the scope in which it gets marketed. For every dozen lambs that get a degree from University X there is only one that will be able to capitalize on their degree, the rest are f$cked. Yet the university will continue to push the agenda that their name gets you a job, and my friend that is just not accurate. Basically, I would discourage anyone from EVER pursuing a degree as an out-of-state student, the name of the university IS NOT WORTH the out-of-state tuiton and will not provide you with positive returns-on-investment. If you can do it in-state, go to town! if not, stop looking at that d%mn US News and World Report like it's the Bible and get real. For any major with high job placement, you can always do it on the cheap by going in-state, for those without high job placement, the answer is even more obvious, the name will NOT mitigate that.
Now, everything depends on what major we're talking about, but to give you a concise example, at Purdue, the Aero Engineering Department has around 400+ students on average, with about 200 graduate students (yours truly included). They'll be lucky if 10% of the graduating class in a particular academic year attains employment in jobs that pertain to aero engineering. You know what happens to the rest? Work in unrelated fields.....working in generic engineering and get depressed because they worked 10 times as hard to get the same job his buddy in civil engineering is doing. Most graviate to computer jobs (after all, that is ALL aero engineering is these days, freggin MATLAB coding, might as well call it computer science) and then fall out of the market altogether, some might even be thinking of trying for the aviation industry, after all many of us got into this field because we wanted to fly planes but kept getting told "have a backup" LOL
I don't have a desire to go for airline work, as my aviation expectations lie in the military and in academia, so I don't have a dog in this fight, but honestly, going to Purdue through their flight program doesn't seem too bad considering my previous statement about "backup careers". I wouldn't do it, it's just too much money for the same ratings I was able to obtain Part 61, but some of the CFI's from the "rich" side of the fence here in LAF are getting on with regionals with very low time (I was quoted 525TT 25multi and the kid was serious) just because they got some bridge thing going with Purdue. Additionally they get dibs on good CFI jobs, while I'm not getting the time of day and have to scrap for local FBO's and no benefits. So aside from the money issue, in which I agree with the people in here, might as well bite the bullet, if nothing seems to provide you with the satisfaction that flying does.
