Hi Guys!

Around Christmas I will graduate with a professional pilot degree. I am considering taking a master’s degree while building time as a CFI. It would be something relevant such as aviation safety or management. However, master’s degrees specifically designed for pilots does not seem common at all which makes me wonder.

- Are there any benefits to having a master’s degree? Higher chance of employment? Faster upgrade times etc.?
- Or do the airlines not even care thus making it a waste of time and money?

I have tried to ask around my flight school but nobody seems to have an answer. I have heard people who hold master’s degree move faster from the regionals to the majors, but I am unsure how valid that information is.

I would love to hear from anybody who can share some personal insight, especially someone involved in the hiring process with an airline.

Thanks!

 

https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/career-questions/110610-masters-degree.html

 

30-40 years ago, it was unusual and made an application stand out. Then the military told all junior officers to get one if they hoped to make O-4, and degree inflation happened.

 

“Masters Degree for Pilots”

Ok that made me chuckle.
Something relevant?
Your education will be completely lob sided with nothing but aviation.
What options does that give you when your medical goes away?
AFAIK airlines don’t give a hoot what your degree is in.
They’re looking for a certain level of ‘higher learning’.
Buddy of mine has a degree in Biology.
Faster upgrade because you have a degree in Professional Piloting?
Don’t think so.
Upgrade is by seniority.

Flew with a dude the other day who was continually tooting his own horn about his degree in Aviation Something with a minor in Being a Pain.
So I told him I’m the living proof you don’t need a degree to do the job I do.
And since he’s doing the same job.....


All joking aside, degree is good but don’t focus exclusively on “aviation”.

 

Bottom line, you get to check another box on the app, which increase your app score and likelihood of an interview call.

At the interview, a masters would show some work ethic and ongoing interest in learning (or at least ambition and willingness to follow through on it). Even an aviation masters.

If you can afford the time and money, go for it.

 

I got to throw in with you on this one. A whole lot of really weak correspondence and online courses were created to provide master’s degrees for guys who simply wanted to make 0-4.

In fairness, they were less of a pain than SOS in residence. But those degrees were often pretty much just a square filler, devoid of real substance. It didn’t matter that they were, it made you as competitive for promotion to field grade as someone with a meaningful degree.

That’s sort of what Rickair is implying in the first line of his response, which of course doesn’t mean they HAVE to be that. Education is seldom a BAD idea, meaningful education anyway. But I doubt that any airline will not hire you because you don’t have a master’s degree. Not these days. And that’s coming from someone who has one.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on masters degrees that take credit for SOS or military pilot training? I’m very slightly considering a box checker masters to bolster my app. I can always get a more useful one down the road if I lose my medical and have to find a new career.

Edit: Upon further review of the link to the thread above, it might be better to use my time volunteering, attending job fairs, attending interview and app prep, saving money for my time at the regionals, and spending time with the family.

 

If your non military it will only help level the playing field. Im going to go back in the fall for an Aviation Safety Masters at University of Central Missouri. Its all online and one of the cheapest courses around. While a masters doesn't guarantee you a job or get you one it helps separate you from the rest of the crowd. And if it gets you hired a couple months earlier at a major it'll pay for itself. Also a good idea to diversify but personally I don't have the patience or the money to take pre requisites for another masters.

 

I would concentrate on racking up hours as a CFI, or wherever. Unless that Masters study is right in your lap I’d just get on with piloting.

Of course all else being equal, the Masters could help, slightly. Yes, there are the other boxes, job fairs, volunteering, keeping that record reasonably clean, etc..

 

Or you could do all of those things and it still won't make a difference!!