Originally Posted by
terks43
All these people have been brainwashed into thinking college actually shows anything. I spent my late teens and early 20’s working hard at a job instead of getting blackout drunk on weekends at some kegger on campus. Now let me ask you, who has the more proven track record of work reliability? But I will say this the only reason that a college degree is “required” is because we let them convince us to all go get one. If we stopped telling young pilots to go get a stupid degree all this would end. A degree is required because we made it that way by way to many of us being willing to shell out even more money for something that is completely useless. It’s a scam.
I have never used my degree accept for checking a box saying that I have one. I don’t even know where it is anymore. I also firmly believe that society places too much emphasis on a degree. For things like engineering, medicine, or science, I think it is very important. For flying and other fields, a trade school education would be better. Having said that, I really didn’t care why they wanted what they did, I just made sure that I had it. Those in HR and interviews look at the degree as a big deal. When they say that a degree is highly preferred (read practically required) and an applicant says that they’re not going to do that, it leaves a bad taste in their mouth. Right now they just slide your application to the side and call someone who went out and did what they wanted. In the future there may be enough of a shortage where a degree isn’t required, but for right now there are people lined up with type ratings and degrees. Call it a scam if you want, but if you went out and got a degree you’d be marketable. You may say that it is useless, but without one don’t expect a call. All of the pay and seniority given up waiting for things to change would pay for a PHD many times over. It may not make you a better pilot, but it’s hard to call it useless when you can’t get an interview without one.