Originally Posted by
havick
True to some degree but, someone with an unrelated degree to flying (specialised) with no experience in the field will find it difficult to go back to that field if they lose their flying job.
Havick & dr dre,
I think you both nailed the problem. From the time I started flying in the mid 1960s the conventional wisdom has been get a degree in another field as a fall-back in case the aviation thing goes sour.
While I'd never argue against more education, I just think there are some practical problems with that advice if trying to apply it:
Does the field actually require more than an undergraduate degree to be successful ?
Did you have actual working experience in the field ? If so, how much...how long ago ?
[In my legacy salad days, I used to fly with captains who said that if they weren't making $XXX,XXX flying an airplane, they'd make that much doing something else because they had a degree in Fancy Engineering from Big Tech University. They never engineered anything and the last engineering problem they solved involved a slide rule]
Does the field require continuing education credits to remain a professional qualification ?
Do you have contacts in the field ? [networking is everything]
There are probably more issues with the conventional wisdom. It's a tough spot to be in. My feeble Plan B centered on the loss of medical certification. So, how to turn flying experience into non-flying aviation employment. I have no idea if my plan would've worked but am sure it wouldn't in the current mess.
It is possible to "retool" one's self but requires a herculean effort. For example, I looked into being an X-ray technician. Reasonable tuition cost, likely employment but two years of full time school...
FULL...TIME. And if you want to run a CAT scan or MRI for higher pay, it requires experience and further schooling.
It can be done...just not by me.
