Batty's hit the nail on the head!
Couldn't agree more Batty!
All this degree talk really gets on my t#*s.
Admission - I have no degree. Has it held me back - has it b*ll#~#s! It didn't stop me having a city career, it didn't stop me driving a US$50m yacht around the world or being responsible for a 25-man crew. It sure as hell won't stop me from flying baby-boeings as and when I get my opportunity.
I've got life experience with a capital E!! Have lived and worked around the world in a variety of testing and challenging conditions. I've been in and around flying for 15 years and followed the civil industry seriously for the last 8. I also have a background in Air Traffic. The JAR system will spit me out in a couple of months time in low hour fATPL form. I have no pretensions as to what this means. I will in all likelihood scratch around for a year or two, getting quality hours on what I can and keeping current in a good sim. I'll rub shoulders with operators of all types anywhere I can, where my hard-won knowledge of hardware, procedures and company current affaires will impress and my kindered aviation spirit will hopefully be easy to warm-to. And one-day I will be in the right place at the right time and I will be offered my first flying job proper. I will get my big break into professional flying and some operator is going to get an enthusiastic, knowlegable, 3-dimensional pilot with a wealth of broad life-experience under his belt but no attitude or pretense to being anything other than what I am - an apprentice. Or he can go and find himself a nice graduate with Honors in "Surfing Technology" with an ability to drink 9 pints in 3 minutes and a poor work ethic, who believes the world owes him and his superior intellectualism a living - Don't Make Me Laugh!
Thank god we have a mature enough system in Europe in general and the UK in particular, which generally sees through this degree mentality cr@#. If only they were as enlightened the other side of the pond.
I am sorry to have gone off on one folks (on my maiden post as well!), but I have come across this whole thing time and time again in my travels and it doesn't smell any better now. There is nothing wrong with any graduate as a rule (Surfing Technologists included), but employers everywhere - beware the graduate who tells you that his Surfing Technology degree makes him a more suitable choice for any job other than Surfboard Technician.
It just aint so my friends......