Do Airlines Care What School You Attended?

[JLLOUIS]

Hello, I am considering of becoming an commercial pilot soon. I have to now make decisions about which colleges I should check out, and Majors, ect.

I have never recieved a straight answer from the following question: Do airlines really care which school you went to, and/or will it affect your chances of success in getting hired?
&
Should I study at and aviation college, or get a degree in something else then just get flight training & will it affect my hiring chances?

Thanks, I appreciate your reply.

[welliewanger]

Howdy,
This has been discussed ad. nauseum in other threads. I'll try to sum it up.

- There is a large (vociferous) group of people on this forum who will tell you that modular training is just as likely to get you a job as integrated. It's very hard to obtain genuine data on percentages of newly qualified pilots getting hired in the first six months; however, having spoken to a number of chief pilots from large airlines (which recruit fATPLs) they all expressed a preference for integrated students. Depending upon market conditions, they would either reduce experience requirements (hours) or just give preference to integrated CVs.

Next on the list of preferences would be all professional training (everything after PPL) to be done with a single recognized school. In their words, this provides a "checkable history".

(for the group I just alluded to above - please don't shoot the messenger. I'm just repeating said chief pilots and recruiters verbatim)

- On the other hand, there are numerous modular fATPLs that get hired soon after completing training. In fact there may well be more of them than there are integrated. But there are a lot more modular students in the first place. We really need statistics shown as percentages of graduates. You can see from my point above which side of the fence I come down on. And, yes, I did integrated, but actually, it didn't help me get a job one iota!

- Further education is always useful, but doesn't count for much when applying for airline jobs. If you've got the fATPL, you've proved you've got the right stuff. More qualifications are always a bonus on any CV, but if you're only doing it to get a job as a pilot, then I fear that you're wasting 3 years and a considerable ammount of money. On the other hand, many 18 - 20 year olds just aren't mature enough to fly airliners. A few years at uni changes people deep down, that's a big positive step. Furthermore, a degree would be useful to fall back on if your flying dream goes up in smoke for whatever reason.

Hope that helps

[ford cortina]

No they don't

[flygirl88]

I completely agree with welliewanger. I have done a degree but will it really help? I suspect not. But it did cost me 3 years. Then again I wouldnt have wanted to finish flight school a year ago. So I'm in a good place now. I think the airlines care very little but the timing is the most important thing. Lets say you start at an FTO now, some would suggest you're in a better position than if you started 2 years ago.

Airlines are also very seniority based. Maturitys a good point. I think many peole take it for granted. But to be in charge or 2nd in charge of an airliner as young as 21, you're gonna need to be well ahead of the maturity drag curve!

Ford Cortina? That was useful! Personally I think anyone who posts something with that much useful content should blow up in a puff of smoke. Just an opinion.

[Halfwayback]

JJL
Welcome to Pprune!

Looking at your age I presume you are referring to your next academic school and not a flight school per se.

Airlines are only concerned with your aviation qualifications and ability. How and where you acheived your education is immaterial but obviously if there were two similarly qualified pilots it may pay a minor part in the hiring decision but when measured against life acheivements and exoerience it is insignificant.

Aa quick perusal of this forum using the Search facility will provide many examples and answers to your question.

I shall close the thread to save it being hijacked but PM me after your research if you want to pursue this question.

Regards

HWB