Hey Drew,
I am sorry to hear about your feelings towards college. Here is the deal. If you ever want to fly for a major airline (American, United, Delta, Continental, Northwest, US Air, Southwest, FedEx, UPS (Basically, the good employers)), you will NEED a 4 year college degree. Most of these airlines require a 4 year college degree in their job requirements. If you don't have one, your resume goes straight to the recycle bin before anyone looks at it. The others say a 4 year college degree is "highly preferred." This means that it is possible (although highly unlikely) to be hired without a 4 year college degree. However, this is usually reserved to people with really high up connections (eg. the CEO's daughter), and not for some random off the street pilot.
As others have said, your odds of getting hired at a good major airline without a 4 year college degree are slim to none. I would say you have a 99% chance of NOT getting hired. If I gave you 99% odds of something happening, would you bet everything you own (or in your case, your entire future) on that tiny 1% chance. NO, of course you wouldn't.
Why would I say a 1% chance. Well, there are about 20,000 pilots flying at regional airlines. There are tens of thousands of other pilots flying as CFI's/freight/part 135 that would kill to fly for a major airline. As a result, every major airlines has thousands upon thousands of resumes on their desk. Some, like Southwest, FedEx, and UPS have over 10,000 resumes. All those resumes look fairly similar. How are these major airlines going to choose 20 pilots for their next class out of this gigantic stack of resumes? They are going to look for a way to eliminate resumes from the pile. The easiest and most common way to thin the pile is to take the resumes without a 4 year college degree and throw them in the recycle bin. Where do you want your resume to be? In the recycle bin, or on HR's desk?
Without a 4 year college degree, the furthest your career will likely go is a captain at a regional airline. At a regional, you will probably max out at around $90,000. At a major airline, you could max out somewhere between $190,000 and $250,000 (or more). Over a potential 30 year career at a major airline, you would be costing yourself MILLIONS upon MILLIONS of dollars by not having your 4 year college degree. And it is not just money. Schedules, days off, vacation, work rules, and overall quality of life are generally much better at major airlines. Think about all the things you will be missing out on by not getting a 4 year college degree.
The job selection for airline pilots is highly competitive. To get hired, you need to do something to set yourself apart. By not getting a 4 year college degree, you are telling the people that could hire you that they should look at the other thousands of resumes WITH 4 year college degrees before they look at yours. Think about all the opportunities you will be missing out on.
Here is a good quote from another JC member about trying to make yourself as competitive as possible.
Quote:
To all you new guys; listen up. You are entering a profession of overachievers, people smarter than you, people more driven than you, people more dedicated than you, people that have 4.0's from schools you didn't even dare apply to, people that are better looking than you, people that are more likable than you and people that have better training than you.
THESE are the people you are competing with for jobs. Read that word again; competing. You are trying to best these people in order to get the job that BOTH of you want, and in some situations only one of you will get it.
Things are slowing down. Hiring is slowing down, the economy is slowing down and the qualifications to get these jobs WILL go up.
So what are you going to do to combat that and make yourself a more marketable pilot who will get the job instead of me?
What makes YOU more marketable? Folks have GOT to start looking at this stuff and saying, "How can I make myself a better, more marketable pilot" instead of saying, "Oh gee whiz I've gotta teach! Oh no! That's horrible! I just wanna fly a jet! I don't want to do anything more than the minimum amount of work!"
Make yourself more marketable, make yourself stand out, go ABOVE AND BEYOND EVERYBODY ELSE, don't go for the minimum standard, network and make friends and if I haven't said it yet GO TO COLLEGE! |
I think I have spelled it out for you as best as I can. If you want to get a good job in aviation, you need a 4 year college degree.
Good luck with your decision. Let us know what you decide.