University degree?

[dzontra]

Hi!
Is it important for pilot to have university degree(4 years) if he want to get job in some better company?

[Aussie]

This topic has been done to death as well. A degree today will not do you any harm. Can only be seen as a positive. Saying that, experience dictates how employable you are. These days, even exp on type specifically dictates how employable you are. While in theory if 2 guys had the same exp and 1 had degree, other didnt... maybe it would get you over the line, all other factors the same. That is in theory. If you want a degree, do it. If you think it will get you a job, save yourself the cash and go flying.

[Juliette Alpha]

In my opinion getting a degree is the best insurance you can get, what if you break your back or your airline makes you redundant and you can't get another job, you'll be in big trouble. Read around here, I'm sure you'll find out that the chances of getting a job when you are a low hour pilot are quite low. If you have a degree you have a backup plan if everything doesn't work out and also gives you a job while you're waiting for your first pilot job.

[what next]

Hello!

If you have a degree you have a backup plan if everything doesn't work out and also gives you a job while you're waiting for your first pilot job.

The latter yes, depending of course what kind of degree it is: In medicine, law or economy you will not get a well-paid job right out of university but need to do a few years as kind of apprentice. At least in my part of the world. The pay of a beginner-doctor at a hospital will not be sufficient do pay back the debts of your pilot training!

As a backup plan in case you permanently lose your pilot job (e.g. due to medical problems) not every degree is equally suited. If you do engineering or computer science (or whatever they call IT or informatics these days) the degree has something like a shelf life. Be away from the job for a decade and nobody will be interested in you anymore. There are enough fresh graduates out there who will happily work 60-hour-weeks for half the salary that you have to ask in order to be able to support your family and pay your mortgage. I know from my own experience.

If I had to do everything again, I would still get some kind of degree before starting this flying thing. But I would choose something that is completely unrelated to aviation (I have my degrees in aerspace engineering which is kind of stupid because in economic downturns, there are no jobs for pilots and no jobs for aircraft designer either...). School teacher of some sort, maybe maths and physics or chemistry. You can always get back to that job, even after many years away from it (a former flying colleauge got so bored after 20 years of flying that he moved back to school teaching!) and (at least in my part of the world) maths and physics teachers have always been in short supply. With that background, you might even find a flying schools that hires you as a ground instructor, even after your licences have expired.

And one last thing: From my personal experience, my universitiy degrees did nothing to help me get jobs as a pilot. Nobody really cares. They rather prefer that you were five or ten years younger.

[Greenlights]

I am fresh hired young pilot on A320, and do not have any degree .
They really don't care about that, will not make you best pilot.
If you are lucky and hope for you, to find a job on big plane, you will see that during type rating, the most important is to understand the plane and know how to fly it with automations etc + common sense. No need degree for that ! Type rating course is fully sufficient for that !
My advice, is if you want to become pilot, you do pilot course. No discussion about it. Because the youngest you are, the best chances you have .
After your pilot course, I did many job that do not require any qualifications as : cleaning operator, driver, restaurant... sure it's not funny, but at least you have your licence in the pocket !
About the degree, I will have good paid job, I will do online course during my career as pilot. Just in case...
For my experience, and I see many friends, they did degree first... believe me, they never came back in pilot way yet ! because life will override you at some point. If you do something far from aviation, it is "dangerous" and it will be harder and harder to come back to it.
All my friend who are in the job now, they did pilot course first and only that.

If something wrong happens, there is plenty of time to do the proper course if needed.

good luck!

[HumaidDaPlane]

not so long ago on a saudia flight from MED to RUH on a EMB175 I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the cockpit and also talk to the co-pilot I asked him many questions especially about having a degree to become a pilot he told me that he only had a college diploma and then went to america for flight training

moral of the story
a degree is beneficial but not essential

[virgin camel]

Hi Greenlights,

I agree you didn't get a degree, your obviously retarded.

[Greenlights]

???

virgin... No need does not mean i am against it.

[ResidentInsomniac]

I agree with Greenlights. The 'degree' discussion is quite common among the pilot community. Most of the time, those who already have a degree emphasize on having one, and there are some who look down upon those who do not have one. If one wants to get a degree, no one is stopping the person, please go ahead. But it is highly unethical to judge peoples' intellect solely based on the idea of whether they possess a degree or not. My 2 cents.

[sevenstrokeroll]

ask yourself this question:

if there were two pilots interviewing for a job and they were completely equal in hours, type ratings, experience, niceness

but ONE had a college degree from a normal, real college...which one would YOU HIRE?

its about life experience and school is experience.

[JammedStab]

Probably depends on your part of the world to work in. Some companies want it.

Personally, I thought that a degree was a waste of time for real world flying ability and flew for 4 years instead.

Life experience.......Flying life experience for me is therefore 4 extra years flying. Of course the University grads will no doubt have a different opinion.

End result...Have flown lots of cool airliners and am on a 747 now.

[Dannyboy39]

I'd always suggest a young training pilot to go through the university process and doing your PPL training at the same time. You then have a backup option if all goes Pete Tong. With so many teenagers doing degrees, the competition, especially in the aviation industry has become immense.

Remember, you're only a failed medical away from flight deck oblivion.

[The Dominican]

In my 30 plus years in this paid hobby of ours I can say that there isn't a single instance where I have used the degree education in this job, this here is a technical career. Now, by all means do get the degree because it will be usefull in other aspects of your life and other things you would want to pursuit, if you are like your average pilot, the whole "airplane fever" will come to pass and you will become quite bored with the monotony (side effect of having a type "A" personality that seems to populate this career) you will have a need to seek other interest or even start a business, I wholeheartedly agree that your degree should be in something other than aviation and preferably in something that you can develope while having flexibility of schedule. A side business or a side interest venture of some kind will also allow you to retire sooner.

[tom775257]

At the first airline I worked for, a flag carrier, it was a requirement to have a university degree to fly as a pilot for them; that said the degree subject was not of interest.