Originally Posted by
Porterboy
I went the aviation diploma route and I almost feel like I wasted my time, money, and energy cause at the flight school next door, they have a deal with Encore to take you from a PPL to an Instructor - you instruct until reaching 1000 hours and then you go right seat on a Q400. That said, if this supposed recession that everybody's talking about happens, you'd have a slight advantage in getting a job with some post secondary. Aviation is mostly about who you know at the end of the day though.
This is my son's plan. He is currently first year at University of Waterloo, Aviation+Science ( which is paired with Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre ), started with PPL so started aviation part of program is in second year. Will have CPL, IFR, and float rating by start of year 2 this September...of 4 year program. He plans to get his CFI ( not part of program ) and instruct for years 3 and 4 of his university program. Maybe try and get a summer aviation related job , but it's tough with only 250 or so hours. Hopefully when he finishes university he'll have 750-1000 hours and should be able to get a job at least doing Medevac or something like that to build more hours. Does that seem reasonable? He wants to get into an airline job eventually.