pilotyip and the college degree

[Flyingdutchman]

I agree..

Which airline outside the US does care about a college degree? NONE!

Cathay Pacific ? nope
Emirates? nope
Singapore Airlines? nope
Lufthansa? nope
KLM? nope
Air france? nope (not that I care )

They care about you as a person, and they care about your pilot skills.. I'll have over 1500 hours before I turn 23 (most of it ME Turbine PIC) and I don't regret my choices..

I take home more money than a average college grad (based on 15/20 days work a month)

Having said all this, If your goal is a US major airline (NWA, CAL, UAL) then go get your degree..

cheers!

 

[bobbysamd]

College v. Not

The last college v. not discussion is hereby incorporated as if fully set forth herein.

 

[banned username 2]

pilotyip and the college degree

Do you know that noise a mesquito makes as it buzzes around your ear???

Ya' know what I am talkin' about???

 

[Mogus]

It's nice to go around and say you don't need a college degree to fly (which is somewhat accurate), but I pity the fool who finds himself in a medical or legal situation that grounds him indefinitely. Left with no other marketable skills, job prospects start to look very grim. A college degree, for the most part regardless of the major, opens up many promising doors.

 

[bobbysamd]

Foreign airline hiring

Which airline outside the US does care about a college degree? NONE!

Cathay Pacific ? nope
Emirates? nope
Singapore Airlines? nope
Lufthansa? nope
KLM? nope
Air france? nope (not that I care )

They care about you as a person, and they care about your pilot skills.. I'll have over 1500 hours before I turn 23 (most of it ME Turbine PIC) and I don't regret my choices..

It's hard to compare the U.S. and European systems. I speak from my experience as an Alitalia program instructor at FlightSafety twelve years ago.

For one thing, one doesn't necessarily have to pay one's way through flight school to become a European airline pilot. At least with Alitalia, potential candidates with no flight experience are recruited to become pilots. The best are hand-picked, with Alitialia training them, at its school in Alghero, on its nickel (or lire, as the case maybe). We had Alitalia contract students at FSI because training them in the U.S. was cheaper at the time. They came to us with their Italian PPLs. We converted them to U.S. Private certificate and trained them for their U.S. Commercial-Instrument-Multis using Alitalia LOFT methods. They went back to Italy to train further in Cheyennes before going to the line at about 300-500 hours.

I am sure Lufthansa, with its school in Arizona, works the same way. Asian airlines, such as JAL and ANA, have schools in California that are similar.

The difference, obviously, is that U.S. pilots must train on their nickel and build experience before airlines will look at them, as opposed to the airline selecting individuals with aptitude and training them to be pilots its way at its school. Perhaps if U.S. airlines adopted the European and Asian model of training pilots from zero time the college issue would be a non-starter. However, the U.S. airlines system of hiring pilots is not about to change and college will continue to be a "starter."

The bottom line remains: Get your degree.

 

[Flyingdutchman]

Sir,

I don't know of any program in Europe where you don't have to pay for training.. There is NO such thing (anymore)



Re Lufthansa training: the program will cost you about 50.000 Euros (1 Euro = +/- 1.23 USD) and you won't get a guaranteed job upon completion...


Friendly regards,
FD

 

[CSY Mon]

Part of the reason US airlines wants college degrees is because IQ testing was out-lawed in 1978.

Before that they just gave the candidates an IQ test and went from there.
After 1978 they figured the smart candidates had a college degree..Kind of round-about IQ testing, althought a bit flawed as the dumb and the rich kid could have a degree, but he or she may not ace the IQ test.

And the point is..?

Spend 4 years on campus getting the degree, or 4 years in the air getting 3000 hours.

Yup the majors ain't going to invite ya without the degree.
Unless times are tough, then they scrub the degree thing and leave an out:
6 year / 4 year / 2 year Degree preffered...Not required. And if it says required, it can be waived depending on market conditions..Just like the hour thing..One day it say 300 hours minimum. the next day 3000 hours minimum.

College or not, lots of hours or not?
Hmm, try black, female. muslim, gay...Now that would attract the attention of the HR departments and bring ya right up to the top of the pile.

Government required quotas, yer tax-money at work.

 

[Flyingdutchman]

Good reply! I agree with you..

 

[BornAgainPagan]

Do not spend four years getting a degree in Women’s Studies.

How do you know that this is not a "real" degree? Do you have one? If not, have you heard of presumptuousness or perhaps misplaced arrogance?

 

[A Squared]

How do you know that this is not a "real" degree? Do you have one? If not, have you heard of presumptuousness or perhaps misplaced arrogance?

Yeah, I've heard of presumptiousness and misplased arrogance. A good example of both would be the idea that Women's Studies is a real degree. Uuuuhhhh huh, 4 years of sitting around reading Andrea Dworkin and pretending she's not a deranged psychopath....yep that's right up there with electrical engineering, or Pre-med, all the heavyweights....uhhhhuh, just keep telling yourself that. Tell you what, to top off your Women's Studies degree, why don't you matriculate over to the CCNY and do some post graduate work in Black Studies with Leonard Jeffries. Maybe you can help him perfect his Ice people/sun people bigotry. Now that would be some *real* education.