Is a pilot worth anything without a degree?

[retired guy]

Money can`t buy happiness? Try telling that to my wife.

 

[sluminginpit]

For starters a degree won't garauntee you a job. There are plenty of law schoold grads working in Starbucks waiting for a break.

G200, relax! You act all high and mighty beacause you think you have such a great life flying, and making money! Would you give it all up if your wife was dying, you bet you would!

I always thought I wanted to make tons of money, but the more I make the more I worry about it. I don't have anymore money than before, just more stuff (crap).

I don't have a degree, only spent 1 year in collage and make $90K a year. I have great wife, great dog, both parents still alive and married, roof over my head, healty, can see, can hear, can afford food, heat, water and clothes. All without a degree. If I loose my job, I won't loose any of this, I will adapt and survive.

If you want a degree, get one. Will it help, maybe, maybe not.

 

[Gulfstream 200]

For starters a degree won't garauntee you a job. There are plenty of law schoold grads working in Starbucks waiting for a break.

G200, relax! You act all high and mighty beacause you think you have such a great life flying, and making money! Would you give it all up if your wife was dying, you bet you would!

I always thought I wanted to make tons of money, but the more I make the more I worry about it. I don't have anymore money than before, just more stuff (crap).

I don't have a degree, only spent 1 year in collage and make $90K a year. I have great wife, great dog, both parents still alive and married, roof over my head, healty, can see, can hear, can afford food, heat, water and clothes. All without a degree. If I loose my job, I won't loose any of this, I will adapt and survive.

If you want a degree, get one. Will it help, maybe, maybe not.

WTF does a wife dying have to do with any of this?

Im not acting high and mighty. My job is very average. It pays very average. Its a good job. Im home a LOT. A pilot can never brag about money. Pilot wages have slipped and everyone elses have skyrocketed in the last 10yrs. I make less than 90% of our friends....but I like my job better so thats fine. At this point in my career Im not willing to work 60hrs a week for 2X the money.

So....my jobs decent/average, nothing more. Its also a job YOU very likely wont get without a degree. Most in the stack have that one checked. Oh, guess what, they also have plenty of experience also. Forget that "work experience" bullshat YIP speaks of. Its a copout.

The point is you very well may be SOL if you lose your job and have to compete with college grads. Good luck outside aviation with nothing to put on a resume but some "PIC turbine" time.

"I will adapt and survive" -- thats one hell of a life plan there!

but at the end of the day, all that matters is if this works for you.

 

[GVFlyer]

Money can`t buy happiness? Try telling that to my wife.

It's been my experience that your wife's view is shared by many women.

I believe their basic tenet is, "While money may not buy everything, what it won't buy I don't much need."


GV







~

 

[pilotyip]

Happiness?

Again who is to define happiness? If one deems himself happy in a position you deem you would not be happy, is that person allowed to be happy by his standards or your standards? No one has answered that question.

 

[GVFlyer]

For starters a degree won't garauntee you a job. There are plenty of law schoold grads working in Starbucks waiting for a break.

True, a degree, particularly an irrelevant one, will not guarantee you a job, but it will significantly improve your chances.

G200, relax! You act all high and mighty beacause you think you have such a great life flying, and making money! Would you give it all up if your wife was dying, you bet you would!

I did not read Gulfstream 200's comments to portray an "all high and mighty" attitude. I read it to say if you lose your current job and you have to compete with college grads for a new position, you will lose out.

Also, I don't believe there are any studies showing that an aviation career in any manner increases spousal mortality.

I always thought I wanted to make tons of money, but the more I make the more I worry about it. I don't have anymore money than before, just more stuff (crap).

That's an issue of discipline and character. You don't have to become materialistic if your income increases - that's a choice you make.

I put 35% of my net income into financial instruments each month and limit my possessions to things which in some way improve my personal or familial quality of life.

I don't have a degree, only spent 1 year in collage and make $90K a year. I have great wife, great dog, both parents still alive and married, roof over my head, healty, can see, can hear, can afford food, heat, water and clothes. All without a degree. If I loose my job, I won't loose any of this, I will adapt and survive.

You make it sound as if having a degree somehow makes it more difficult to have the basics and to enjoy a meaningful life. Education and QOL are not mutually exclusive. I have two degrees and share the same things you do except that my income is a multiple of yours, the later primarily because I had the right qualifications when the right opportunity presented itself.



GV

 

[sluminginpit]

Theres more to life than money and education, thats my point.

Good for those who have degrees, you can sit for long hours in class, spend lots of money and say you have a degree!

Good for those who don't, you are lazy, unable to learn and will fail if you lose your flying job because G200 and GVflyer are more qualified than you! There will be no other jobs available.

 

[sluminginpit]

G200 just curious what you would do if you lost your flying job? What is your degree in? Do you think you would be able to find a job easily becasue of your degree?

 

[Gulfstream 200]

G200 just curious what you would do if you lost your flying job? What is your degree in? Do you think you would be able to find a job easily becasue of your degree?

Whatever I decide to do my resume will trump yours, no matter what the degree(s) are in. You will be a high school grad with some flight time. Not a place I would want to be and looking for work outside the cockpit.

thats the whole point here.

Nobody cares what you choose to do. The "I will adapt and survive" method seems to work for you and yours. Thats all that matters.

I couldn't live like that, and wish you luck with it.

Just dont try and pull that "poor me" and "G200 and GV think they are better than everyone" bull$hit. Its the same copout Pilotyip uses once he is backed into a corner. It has no teeth, no validity.

The discussion was about if a 4yr degree is needed, and the vast majority seem to think one would be extremely foolish to venture out today without one. NO......really?

YMMV.

 

[Gulfstream 200]

Good for those who don't, you are lazy, unable to learn and will fail if you lose your flying job because G200 and GVflyer are more qualified than you! There will be no other jobs available.

kinda scary you think thats a joke!

oh, dont worry, there will always be jobs avialable outside the cockpit for high school grads.

(Starbucks and Mcdonalds)

 

[sluminginpit]

G200 If I get a degree can I be a dumb A$$ like you!!

You are hired help, nothing more nothing less! Your wife is lucky to have you, you are truly one of a kind!

You win, your smarter and will be a greater success than me! Boo ho !!

 

[pilotyip]

College not necessary, define corner

A corner with no sides is not a corner? When have you ever backed me into a corner where I said you were right and I was wrong? If you fly because you like to, and would be happy making $100K per year which puts you in the upper 5% of wage earners in the US, probably the top 1% in the world then a college degree is not necessary. See there I said it again, say wasn't there a song like that once upon a time? Oh! Different thread. If you are not going to be a pilot or some other type of skilled labor with advanced training, then a college degree is probably necessary. I won't argue that, and on that we are in the same corner.

 

[Gulfstream 200]

G200 If I get a degree can I be a dumb A$$ like you!!

You are hired help, nothing more nothing less! Your wife is lucky to have you, you are truly one of a kind!

You win, your smarter and will be a greater success than me! Boo ho !!

I figured that was about the best you could do.

I rest my case about education.

 

[pilotyip]

bite bite bite

G200 he is playing you like a violin, he posts you bite.

 

[Gulfstream 200]

G200 he is playing you like a violin, he posts you bite.

ya think?