Private Pilot License, worth it?

B

Bobber

Loves Whiskey
Would a PPL be useful to a career dispatcher? What about an instrument or commercial rating? Do any of ya'll have any thoughts, ideas or have the license/ratings yourself? Is it helpful (in which ways?) or a waste of money/time and not beneficial?
There might be other wondering the same.

Thanks!
 
If you are doing to it help you as a dispatcher, the instrument will be more helpful than anything and commercial is pretty much worthless. I wouldn't recommend spending the money on any of it, unless you plan on using it in the future.
 
It will probably certainly help you to understand the job better. Can’t say for sure it’s an absolute must for getting hired on places. I can’t recall ever seeing a pilots license as a requirement although you will occasionally see it listed as “preferred”. When you’re applying with a ton of other people to a field with so few positions anything like that might certainly give you a leg up in whatever computer program (or human) sifts through applications. Most of the people I work with do have pilots licenses, but most probably had intentions of being pilots as their careers at one point and it just didn’t work out for whatever reason, myself included.
 
I think it can help your resume stand out a bit when you have little or no experience. However it's definitely not a prerequisite to get hired. If you've always wanted to get your pilot license and enjoy flying, I would say go ahead, but don't think you have to get any ratings just to enhance your resume. At my (major) airline, I work with everyone from people with zero flying time to those who have worked as captains at regionals.
 
There's a difference between helpful (yes, undoubtedly, esp instrument rating) and worth it (not the cost of getting private/instrument/commercial/multi)... just to get hired in an entry-level op where they'll happily hire you if you dont have those ratings. Majors will hire you based on experience at a regional and knowledge. If someone's paying for ratings for you or you really want the ratings as a personal goal, I'd say absolutely. I am instrument/commercial/multi. I felt like having taken few FAA tests made prepping for the ADX a bit easier and the actual dispatch course a LOT easier, reading approach plates wasn't foreign, and METARS and TAFs were a breeze. You can learn those without flying though. If you want to go a cheaper route and still have a little leg up on the others in the resume pile, be an instrument ground instructor! You do not have to be a pilot to become a ground instructor.
 
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