Flying a desk (professional pilot doing grad school)
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Flying a desk (professional pilot doing grad school)
Good afternoon everyone, it has been forever!
I'm a professional pilot in my late 20s, and I've been a throttle jockey for the past 10 years. I come from a civilian background, and I've reached this point the instructor way. At this time, I'm flying a regional jet from the right seat.
Other than my flying experience, I have a B.Sc. in aeronautics (pro pilot) and a M.Sc. in aeronautics with a dual concentration (management and safety systems).
My advanced degrees were just a way of stopping the loan sharks from coming after me, so I've never actually used any of them.
At this present time, I'm debating if I should get a PhD in aeronautics / aviation.
To be entirely sincere, I have no idea if it is worthwhile or not. I don't know any pilots with advanced degrees in aeronautics, and it's far from a requirement in this field.
That being said, I am actually planning on making some money during my lifetime. What I'm lacking is experience, and I'm having a very tough time getting that experience while flying airplanes for a living.
Since I'm still dealing with "loan sharks", leaving my job for a middle management position at a small airport or a safety director position at some flight school isn't really an option.
What I'm actually saying is that I'm impatient. I've started from the bottom as a pilot, and I can't afford to do that again as a manager. I guess what I'm asking is if I can cheat and add a PhD rather than paying my dues again.
Should I get a PhD?
Will anyone care for a B.Sc. / M.Sc. / PhD in aeronautics whose only quantifiable experience is inside the cockpit?
What will be the best way of adding management experience to my resume while still flying for a living?
*I'm not disgruntled, I actually still enjoy my job. I'm just trying to figure out what to do with these degrees.
I'm a professional pilot in my late 20s, and I've been a throttle jockey for the past 10 years. I come from a civilian background, and I've reached this point the instructor way. At this time, I'm flying a regional jet from the right seat.
Other than my flying experience, I have a B.Sc. in aeronautics (pro pilot) and a M.Sc. in aeronautics with a dual concentration (management and safety systems).
My advanced degrees were just a way of stopping the loan sharks from coming after me, so I've never actually used any of them.
At this present time, I'm debating if I should get a PhD in aeronautics / aviation.
To be entirely sincere, I have no idea if it is worthwhile or not. I don't know any pilots with advanced degrees in aeronautics, and it's far from a requirement in this field.
That being said, I am actually planning on making some money during my lifetime. What I'm lacking is experience, and I'm having a very tough time getting that experience while flying airplanes for a living.
Since I'm still dealing with "loan sharks", leaving my job for a middle management position at a small airport or a safety director position at some flight school isn't really an option.
What I'm actually saying is that I'm impatient. I've started from the bottom as a pilot, and I can't afford to do that again as a manager. I guess what I'm asking is if I can cheat and add a PhD rather than paying my dues again.
Should I get a PhD?
Will anyone care for a B.Sc. / M.Sc. / PhD in aeronautics whose only quantifiable experience is inside the cockpit?
What will be the best way of adding management experience to my resume while still flying for a living?
*I'm not disgruntled, I actually still enjoy my job. I'm just trying to figure out what to do with these degrees.
Join Date: May 2000
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I wouldn't waste the money. I see little use for a PhD in such a narrow field, unless you want to teach at Embry-Riddle.
For management experience, you'd probably be best off looking for a Chief Pilot, Fleet Manager, or Training Center Director job.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend anyone get a BS in "Pro Pilot". Get your formal education in an area that you can use OUTSIDE the airline industry!
For management experience, you'd probably be best off looking for a Chief Pilot, Fleet Manager, or Training Center Director job.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend anyone get a BS in "Pro Pilot". Get your formal education in an area that you can use OUTSIDE the airline industry!
I have a CPL, BEng(Hons) in aeronautics, and a PhD in the development of flight test techniques. I make money that would be around "regional captain", in practice I've never worked as a full time professional pilot, although I've also never worked outside of aviation. My job is basically as a senior manager in an aviation research organisation, which is more or less what I've done for the last 8 years. Prior to that, I've worked in academia, airworthiness, and flight testing.
There are jobs for those of us who have chosen to combine academia and professional flying, and they are generally very interesting and reasonably (not necessarily very) well paid. Those jobs aren't however neccessarily very easy to find - I suspect that there are less than 100 people with my broad profile across the UK and USA, and I've probably met about a third of them.
It is useful if you're consider this to remember what a PhD is - it's not like an MSc which is a higher taught degree that emparts professional knowledge, it's basically a research licence. If a CPL is the baseline to be paid to fly an aeroplane, a PhD is a parallel baseline to be paid to conduct independent research. Full professors are the training captains of the research world!
So, to my mind, the reason to do a PhD is because there's a topic you have a passion to research, and you fancy long term being a researcher (presumably joining me in this select little band of people conducting indepedent research in aviation). If you do have that passion, go for it - in fact feel free to get in touch offline as I may be able to help you with finding a university and supervision.
Like most people I massively enjoyed about 75% of my PhD, and hated the last 25% of writing up and editing the thesis. For me it's supported my career since, and I'm very glad that I've done it. However, I wouldn't claim for on moment that it is a route to senior management - it isn't. Nor (despite many people thinking otherwise) is it a mark of substantially greater broad subject knowledge - whilst I'd hope that anybody with a PhD in subject X has an excellent knowledge base in the broader subject, that's not actually what it's about.
If you want a route to management, to be honest, I'd do either a general or specialist MBA, not a PhD. [That said, I have a BEng+PhD and my wife has a BSc+MBA, and I've ended up with quite a bit more management responsibility than her, which is only cherry picking one example, but does show that PhDs can end up in senior management.]
G
There are jobs for those of us who have chosen to combine academia and professional flying, and they are generally very interesting and reasonably (not necessarily very) well paid. Those jobs aren't however neccessarily very easy to find - I suspect that there are less than 100 people with my broad profile across the UK and USA, and I've probably met about a third of them.
It is useful if you're consider this to remember what a PhD is - it's not like an MSc which is a higher taught degree that emparts professional knowledge, it's basically a research licence. If a CPL is the baseline to be paid to fly an aeroplane, a PhD is a parallel baseline to be paid to conduct independent research. Full professors are the training captains of the research world!
So, to my mind, the reason to do a PhD is because there's a topic you have a passion to research, and you fancy long term being a researcher (presumably joining me in this select little band of people conducting indepedent research in aviation). If you do have that passion, go for it - in fact feel free to get in touch offline as I may be able to help you with finding a university and supervision.
Like most people I massively enjoyed about 75% of my PhD, and hated the last 25% of writing up and editing the thesis. For me it's supported my career since, and I'm very glad that I've done it. However, I wouldn't claim for on moment that it is a route to senior management - it isn't. Nor (despite many people thinking otherwise) is it a mark of substantially greater broad subject knowledge - whilst I'd hope that anybody with a PhD in subject X has an excellent knowledge base in the broader subject, that's not actually what it's about.
If you want a route to management, to be honest, I'd do either a general or specialist MBA, not a PhD. [That said, I have a BEng+PhD and my wife has a BSc+MBA, and I've ended up with quite a bit more management responsibility than her, which is only cherry picking one example, but does show that PhDs can end up in senior management.]
G
I've observed that training dept and/or LCA roles are a common entry point into airline management, assuming you're interested in airline management. Once you get into The Club, your degree might take on greater value/influence.
I didn't do that myself but saw motivate people do that. Good luck.
I didn't do that myself but saw motivate people do that. Good luck.
