Originally Posted by
RightSeat4Ever
Agreed. I spent a hitch in the military to earn GI Bill benefits to pay for college. Before I left active duty, I got my A&P lic ran my own A&P shop to cover the added expenses. Since then I have earned two Master's Degrees in addition to the required licenses/ratings to be considered a professional. I have no patience for someone without at least a bachelor's degree asking to be one of my peers. To be blunt, those folks haven't earned the proper credentials to be called a professional. When we begin lowering that standard of professional expectation, we are all going suffer with lower pay and benefits. Like I said earlier, if you don't feel that having at least a BA should be required to get invited to interview, don't get bent out of shape when one of the Company execs refers to us plumbers. To say other wise is truly intellectually dishonest.
So because you chose on your own accord to get several degrees, you're going to cast the expectation of a degree on everyone else? That's what it sounds like.
The FAA makes it crystal clear what the requirements are to be a professional pilot and a bachelor's degree isn't one of them. Reasonable people can disagree about whether an airline having additional educational requirements makes sense or not. Whack makes a great argument above against it and I for one agree with him, and I have a bachelors and a masters.
But regardless, to say that if someone made it into the seat next to you on their own merits without a degree you wouldn't consider them a peer or a professional is a little arrogant. My guess is unless you asked them you'd never know who had one and who didn't...you'd only care how they performed their job.
That said, I do agree with you that the game is the game. The expectation and preference by companies for applicants to have a degree is well known. You may strongly disagree with it, but don't complain about not getting called if you continuously refuse to get a bachelor's degree - the expectation is uniform. But bro...get off your high horse about it.