Originally Posted by
JamesNoBrakes
So you want to be a pilot. Great.
Do you think that being a commercial pilot means you have to be an airline pilot?
Also, there is some good you can take from a university program, but you need to be well balanced and not have a degree in "aviation", as that isn't very useful. Your ratings and certificates and experience are what get you the job, not the degree. Aerospace engineering, aviation management and others are good choices. If you don't have a good way to fund this education, it's a very bad idea. You don't want to go a bunch into debt. Consider an on-line program or some other ideas.
It is disheartening that experienced aviators give freely of their time here, when we all probably have something better to do, and it goes in one ear and out the other... We are simply attempting to offer what career guidance we can and save those from the many pitfalls that exist. Some bits of advice are from our own mistakes or misfortune, some are from others and some are from those who have had golden careers. I really appreciate that JNB and Burke are especially active and right on with dispensing their own brands of advice for newbies. One common thread that is important and noticeable from JNB's posts is his continually reminding that there are myriad jobs in aviation and that there are many more rewarding and descent paying flying jobs that don't involve a fist full of throttles or a shiney jet. Many folks have made a career of flying single engine and many of those jobs require much skill and pay quite well. BTW, flying a typical jet does not require the pinnacle of skill, as much of the general public thinks; however you do need to pay you dues to get there and be successfull at it...