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Old 02-12-2013, 06:54 AM
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satpak77
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Joined APC: Jul 2005
Position: Left Seat
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Originally Posted by 03SVTCobra View Post
First off hello to all of you and thanks for letting me be a part of your forum. I'd like to start with a little background about myself then get some feedback from career aviators. I am 26 years old and I work as a Sr. claims examiner for one the "big guys" in the auto insurance industry. I've been with the company for 14 months. I have just recently completed my MBA in finance. For as long as I can remember flying was always what I've wanted to do. I have very minimal training, about 12 hours total, I started on my PPL in high school and was too busy with the rest of life to ever try and complete it.

Now I've gotten to a stage in my life where continuing education of some sort will be my next step. While my boss/company have encouraged me to pursue a law degree (with reimbursement) to start my way up the ranks to become a staff attorney at said company. However if I'm going to ever become a pilot, I have to make that decision in the next 6 months. While I'm young enough to recover any loans I may need to take out in the process of flight school.

While I'm not trying to say that a "paid for" law degree is a bad thing, I just don't know that it's my dream job. On the flip side becoming a staff attorney and possibly becoming civil defense attorney with my own firm or as a partner at a firm would leave me a flying option as well. With that sort of income I'd certainly be able to entertain fractional ownership on a private aircraft.

So this is where I'm at, if anyone here has a similar background and is now flying for a regional or major I'd appreciate some insight on how you got there and some next steps to consider in helping me towards a decision.

Thank you,
Sheldon
1. Take the paid-for law degree. Savor education and making new friends/connections. Worst case ? Your paid-for-degree is on your resume and you never use it. Not a bad "worse case"

2. Specialize or steer your law training towards bankruptcy law or mergers/acquisitions. Sadly (or maybe not) the world and aviation itself has a need for these lawyers. Your MBA plus pending JD will allow you to "speak the same language" as the other folks involved in these events

3. Work for employer a fair amount of time to justify the expense they spent on your. ??? 5 more years ???

4. Join another firm or open up firm yourself. Target date: 10 years from today. You will be an "old" age 36

5. Get PPL and Instrument. Seek to be a "professional" even if your ultimate career-goal is not pilot

6. Continue life, girlfriend, wife, kids, etc.
In theory, if done right, you could be 36 years old and own (or your firm own...) a corporate aircraft aka King Air/Citation/etc
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