Clearsky

I am a couple years away from making the jump to civilian aviation and am working on an mba about 15 months from completion. It is getting to be a huge struggle though and is creating havoc on my QOL. My question is how valuable really is th MBA for military folks? I am going to have about 2500-3000 hours with 1.1k multi, 1.8k IP all mil/turbine when I get out for comparison.

e6bpilot

It is a tiebreaker at best if you are talking about an airline career. I have one and I have used it exactly zero times.
The only good thing I will say about having it is that it gives me another option should I lose my medical or get furloughed. Other than that...completely useless, just like my bachelors.


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rickair7777

It will be another box to check which will move you up in the resume stack, especially at a legacy. How much sooner will you get the call? Six months? A year or two?

Look up how much one year at max legacy Captain pay is worth and that will help you quantify the worth of a masters.

If you're already *highly* competitive relative to your military peers and reasonably expect to get picked up by a legacy immediately then it's probably not going to make a difference.

Hrkdrivr

Finish it. I didn't and I wish I had. I actually did OK in the military without the Masters, but I think I'm an anomaly and/or lucky. When it came time to separate, it was always nagging in the back of my mind whether or not it was going to be a discriminator against me.

FDXLAG

Burn no bridges, 2 years from now staying in may be your best option, so get the degree. That said make the jump asap.

Sliceback

It's a small box you'd check. Your military time and IP time is more than enough to be competitive.

Do the annual WAI conferences. I'd recommend two. First one helps you figure your game plan out, second one allows you to walk in with a much better 'big picture' view.

Improve your flying and experience resume. Qualifications, schools, etc. Like the MBA they're additional boxes that might get you over the hump to get called sooner. You'll never know even after you get hired since recruiting doesn't tell us the exact details.

If you stay in the reserves/ANG (recommended) an MBA might(should?) help with promotions.

SteveA

Any master's will help you in the military and give you options. Finish one. Now, as for the MBA, is that's what causing the angst? There are easier masters programs out there. My two best friends are civilians with MBAs, but they use them everyday and are doing well. An airline career doesn't have much use for the MBA, so it may not be worth the cost/hassle. I've also heard you have about a 5 year window to apply the MBA or it loses its value. Not sure if that's accurate, though.

2loud

If you can, I'd knock it out especially if there's a chance that you'll be staying in or another big downturn hits. If it's still on Uncle Sam's coin, why not as long as you don't tag on further commitment. A MBA holds very little advantage for getting hired by the airlines-a tie breaker perhaps. If you want to climb the airline management ladder down the road, it's definitely worth it. Of course, you'd have to sell your soul also.

FLY6584

I'm a military guy that never even started my Masters and I'm glad I didn't. I knew I would never make the AF a career and thought I could use that time to spend with my family in a career that already has you away from them enough. I took the VSP and eight months later I got an interview at my dream job with less hours than you. Part of it was also principal for me. I just could not convince myself to put so much time and effort into something that did absolutely nothing to make me a better warfighter and just satisfied some Generals desire to brag to Congressman about how many people in his Service have their Masters degrees compared to other Services. I just could not bring myself to contribute to such an already broken system.

Is the slight edge that it may or may not give you worth that time away from your family and lack of QOL. That's for you to decide, but I could understand if that meant the difference between Delta or Jet Blue or if it meant it bought you a couple extra years of seniority at a Legacy, but you're going to get hired dude and it won't be long after you get out and likely will be while you're still in. Just always do what's best for your family and how can you ever look back and have any regrets?

MikeF16

There are so many what-ifs, but assuming you just want to be an airline line pilot and nothing more then the MBA is a big fat waste of time and money. Hell, learning to be a pilot is almost a waste of time the job is so easy . (from a flying perspective)