If an aviation degree was required to work in the aviation industry...

K

ktsai91

Well-Known Member
I know the general consensus on online aviation forums is that aviation degrees are worthless if you want to work in the aviation industry in general, especially aeronautical science degrees to become a professional pilot.

Now let's do a what if question: If aviation degrees are REQUIRED to work in the aviation industry, including aeronautical science degrees to become a professional pilot, would you get an aviation degree if you really wanted a job in aviation? Let's say that major and regional airlines won't even hire you or get you in for a job interview, unless you have a degree in aeronautical science. Would you want to get an aviation degree if aviation really is your calling?
 
ktsai91 said:
I know the general consensus on online aviation forums is that aviation degrees are worthless if you want to work in the aviation industry in general, especially aeronautical science degrees to become a professional pilot.
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The consensus is that they are worthless if you want to work outside of the aviation industry. But then, so are a lot of degrees. In the industry a degree of some sort is usually preferred although from what I've heard most employers aren't looking for anything aviation specific. If any degree is required I would rather spend my time learning about planes than political science.
 
ktsai91 said:
If aviation degrees are REQUIRED to work in the aviation industry, including aeronautical science degrees to become a professional pilot, would you get an aviation degree if you really wanted a job in aviation? Let's say that major and regional airlines won't even hire you or get you in for a job interview, unless you have a degree in aeronautical science. Would you want to get an aviation degree if aviation really is your calling?
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Yes, yes i would. Its whatI did. I believe many on this forum would do, because we have, or had at one point keen interest to be part of the industry. For me, it was a clear path, Required or not.

I am not a fan of the "Pilot Degree" though. Airport, Airline, etc degrees are cool. But Those "Flight Operations/Pilot" degree are waste of money/time/aptitude/and collegiate intellect.
 
ktsai91 said:
Now let's do a what if question: If aviation degrees are REQUIRED to work in the aviation industry, including aeronautical science degrees to become a professional pilot, would you get an aviation degree if you really wanted a job in aviation? Let's say that major and regional airlines won't even hire you or get you in for a job interview, unless you have a degree in aeronautical science. Would you want to get an aviation degree if aviation really is your calling?
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I actually thought about getting one, and decided against it. (Circumstances helped.) I don't think the industry would ever consider such tomfoolery, although the purported Riddle carveout in HR5900 might give graduates of said institution a leg up.
 
Scorpio11982 said:
Yes, yes i would. Its whatI did. I believe many on this forum would do, because we have, or had at one point keen interest to be part of the industry. For me, it was a clear path, Required or not.

I am not a fan of the "Pilot Degree" though. Airport, Airline, etc degrees are cool. But Those "Flight Operations/Pilot" degree are waste of money/time/aptitude/and collegiate intellect.
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Would it be okay to say that NOT ALL aviation degrees are worthless? I am getting an aviation administration degree and I landed a summer time job at an airport cargo terminal. Would an aviation administration degree be useful in business like finance, management, and accounting? I had to take those same classes that I would get for a business degree (actually I got an associate degree in business before I majored in aviation admin and most of my business classes transferred to the bachelors in aviation administration major).
 
Let me make sure I understand the question correctly. "If you had to have a silly degree in order to be a pilot, and you wanted to be a pilot, would you get a silly degree?" Who, exactly, do you think is going to answer "no" to this? I mean that's some pretty tortured scenario-development just to get someone to type "I would get a silly degree".
 
This is somewhat of a loaded question. Obviously if it was required then people will do whatever it takes to get there. Then it would be somewhat akin to the 100 hour multi requirement at the regionals. Pilots don't go out and spends thousands of dollars building multi because it might make them more qualified. They do it because they have to.
 
Autothrust Blue said:
I actually thought about getting one, and decided against it. (Circumstances helped.) I don't think the industry would ever consider such tomfoolery, although the purported Riddle carveout in HR5900 might give graduates of said institution a leg up.
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I weighed out my options at the time and went about getting the aviation degree through Riddle worldwide. I will also say that my circumstances played a role in choosing to do so. First off I was working on my CFI at the time and I wanted the flexibility to be able to move to an instructing job if the opportunity arose (and it eventually did). Secondly I did not want to become a product of any of the secondary institutions within the state where I was currently residing (Alabama).

But had I been a resident in my home state at the time (Texas) I probably would have chosen a state school and actually had some resemblance of a social life while majoring in a non aviation field of study.
 
A lot of people already do it for ATC. It's ridiculous that some universities produce an actual degree in ATC. Congratulations. You've graduated with a degree in ATC that makes you qualified to do absolutely jack, does not have the ability to even get you a job at a contract tower, it leaves you with only one potential employer and that employer is also in a hiring freeze. What a great frickin degree.
 
I'm gonna be odd man out here and say that I got a degree in aviation -professional pilot, and would recommend it to others for several reasons. One, I actually enjoyed the classes I was taking. I think I literally would have shot myself if I had been going through some equally pointless degree in business or political science*. Two, I know that I was better prepared for a 121 groundschool as a flight instructor with no 121 experience than the variety of other backgrounds in my class. Third, If you are getting this "alternate" degree as a backup, how is any degree with no prior experience in the field, and having not used the information you learned in several years going to give you any kind of leg up other than just having a degree, which the aviation degree accomplishes. Finally, if I'm hiring someone as a pilot, an aviation degree shows me that you have more than a passing interest in the field, and that if I hire you, you will want to be more than just a seat-warmer.

That said, I went to a state school with an aviation program, and paid 40% of what I would have paid at Riddle for training that was IMHO, just as good, but we can say it was at least 80% as good if you want to quantify it. Finally, if you must have a separate "fallback" degree, get a degree in engineering, or something that obliquely applies.


*Tangent: I can't think of two more useless degrees. Everybody, their brother, and their cousin has a degree in business. What on earth do you think you're going to do with a degree in business that you couldn't do with a degree in underwater basket weaving? I can understand getting a degree in political science if you are merely interested in the classes, but the same principle applies. Everyone I have met with a PoliSci degree is either not using it, or is teaching PoliSci.

...my two cents!
 
spades9048 said:
A lot of people already do it for ATC. It's ridiculous that some universities produce an actual degree in ATC. Congratulations. You've graduated with a degree in ATC that makes you qualified to do absolutely jack, does not have the ability to even get you a job at a contract tower, it leaves you with only one potential employer and that employer is also in a hiring freeze. What a great frickin degree.
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Pretty much. My brother went to Riddle for ATC, and never got picked up for the academy after graduating. Long story short he's now an assistant manager at a bank in Oregon. Sucks, because ATC was something he really wanted to do.
 
I have an aviation degree, applied to the railroad some time back and said company to which I sent my resume seems to be interested in me now by giving me an interview this Wednesday. I guess that my flying experience + degree caught someone's eye for them to want to interview me.... It's all about selling yourself off, I reckon.
 
That's alot like saying, "If my aunt had a pair of balls, would she be my uncle?" I'm sure if aviation degrees were required, alot of us would have them, but since they're not, many of us are more interested in having some sort of backup due to the many instabilities involved in flying professionally (loss of medical etc). Something like a business admin. degree can get you a boring, 9-5 cubicle dwelling yes man job if necessary to keep food on the table.
 
I have an engineering degree. I'm pretty sure no airline is ever going to say "Yeah, that's nice. But we'd really prefer you to have an aviation degree". I agree with most everyone else in this thread that there is some strange logic going on to justify what you presumably want to do.
 
No degree is worthless, they just have relative worth. If you're up against someone for a position with the exact same credentials, except they lack a degree, then a degree in basket weaving all of a sudden has worth.

Now whether it's worth what you paid for it ... that's a different question.
 
Hammertime said:
*Tangent: I can't think of two more useless degrees. Everybody, their brother, and their cousin has a degree in business. What on earth do you think you're going to do with a degree in business that you couldn't do with a degree in underwater basket weaving? I can understand getting a degree in political science if you are merely interested in the classes, but the same principle applies. Everyone I have met with a PoliSci degree is either not using it, or is teaching PoliSci.

...my two cents!
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I have a minor in political science, and I'd say nearly everybody I was taking classes with was planning on going to law school. Additionally, I'd say a very strong majority, maybe over 75%, of the people I attend law school with have political science degrees.

With that being said, and if you want to extend it to the next step in the process, I may agree with you regarding the worthlessness of having a law degree. The fact of the matter is that most social science undergraduate degrees are nothing more than ground work for a graduate degree of some sort. If you're unwilling or unable to pursue something like a masters degree in public policy, a PhD in political science, or a law degree, it's just another degree.
 
The truth is that these days... Pretty much 75% of degrees are as worthless as the next. I'd say 4 out of 5 of my friends that have degrees don't have a job in the field in which they studied. They wait tables and mow lawns or bartend. That being said... A degree in engineering is as valuable as they ever have been. There still aren't enough people graduating with electrical, industrial, chemical, and biological engineering degrees to fill the jobs out there. Everyone with degrees in business, finance, advertising, liberal arts, etc are hurting just like everyone else. So be smart if you are going to get a degree. Get it in something useful. You might not be a pilot forever and a degree in business is likely to be just as useless as a degree in how to fly airplanes.
 
chrisreedrules said:
The truth is that these days... Pretty much 75% of degrees are as worthless as the next. I'd say 4 out of 5 of my friends that have degrees don't have a job in the field in which they studied. They wait tables and mow lawns or bartend. That being said... A degree in engineering is as valuable as they ever have been. There still aren't enough people graduating with electrical, industrial, chemical, and biological engineering degrees to fill the jobs out there. Everyone with degrees in business, finance, advertising, liberal arts, etc are hurting just like everyone else. So be smart if you are going to get a degree. Get it in something useful. You might not be a pilot forever and a degree in business is likely to be just as useless as a degree in how to fly airplanes.
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You sure?

It's possible that I'm a bad example, but I have a liberal arts/social science degree, and haven't had a problem being employed during the downturn. Have I had to hustle? Sho nuff! But I haven't been out of work longer than a month since 2005 unless I was in school full time.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/a-case-for-college-the-unemployment-rate-for-bachelors-degree-holders-is-37-percent/2727
 
ktsai91 said:
Now let's do a what if question: If aviation degrees are REQUIRED to work in the aviation industry, including aeronautical science degrees to become a professional pilot, would you get an aviation degree if you really wanted a job in aviation?
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As a purely hypothetical question? No, I wouldn't. It would be totally irrelevant to the small amount of flying work I do, and I would never pay back the cost of said degree.

But it is also unlikely to happen, as the vast majority of people working (as pilots) in the aviation industry do not have aeronautical science degrees.
 
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