ThomasH

Hey guys,

I know this may belong in the hiring section, but I wanted to ask you guys directly instead.

I will be graduating from University of California, San Diego this summer with a aerospace engineering degree. Now I've always wanted to work my way to become a major airline pilot, and am now at the crossroads of choosing the rest of my life, flight school, or grad school. I am pretty scared that I will be in the hole after flight school with no one willing to hire.

Could I get your opinions on the situation? Mine and the industry?

-patiently awaiting any opinion/advice
Tom

Airhoss

Two words of advice for you. Grad School....

I would not want to be trying to break into this business right now under any circumstances.

It is my strong opinion that flight school is waste of time and money currently. Will the industry turn around? Sure it will eventually, but you are really just rolling the dice on flight school hoping that it will turn around anytime in the near future.

I don't know how old you are but if you're young enough you might consider trying to get into the air guard. That way you can do both, fly and go to grad school. If things turn around you'll have the experience to get that airline job. If they don't turn around you get to keep flying and have job too.

⌐ AV8OR WANNABE

Tom -

You didn’t tell us how far you’ve gotten so far? You are graduating with an aerospace degree so do you have a private pilot license, a CFI or nothing so far? I’m asking because when I was graduating from my aviation university I was a CFI/II & MEI with over 1,000 hours of flight time. In other words our advice will vary greatly based on which stage of your career you are at.

If you go to a grad school what would you be pursuing? I’m fairly certain that no matter what field you choose – you will probably make more money and have a much more stable career than if you stick to flying.

Something else to consider - I got an electrical engineering degree before my flying degree and can tell you that lots of ‘brainiacs’ such as as yourself get quickly bored with the flying profession. In fact, several of my close friends quit flight instructing because it simply wasn’t stimulating enough for them… That’s just something you should consider because it’d be horrible for you to regret being a pilot some 10-15 years down the road.

Having said that, there are no guarantees in life no matter what you do.

Are you single or married? Do you have kids? If you already have a family or thinking about getting one soon, this field is NOT very family friendly. Especially at the level you are at; it gets better when you accumulate seniority at your final airline but it’ll be a while before you get there.

If you pay for your training with student loans (like I did) you can always defer paying them back but eventually you’ll have to start paying and it’ll be a while before you can say “I’m debt-free.” I’ve been flying professionally for 14 years and am still paying off my student loans. Granted, the first 11 years I just couldn’t pay anything at all, so I kept deferring my payments but I am just illustrating to you what you might be getting into.

It is probably safe to say that in the next couple of years you’ll be seeing lots of negative news in the airline world, poor earnings, layoffs, possibly bankruptcies.

I must be telling you all this so I can talk you out of this profession, right?

Well, actually quite the opposite. Call me the eternal optimist (here at APC we call it "Anti-Biggs"... ) but I still think this is a great career to get into.

If your family life can handle it (that’s why I asked if you were married, etc) and you are prepared for some miserable years to come (maybe even a decade or so!) things will only get better from now. None of the horrible economical news should really affect you right now as you’re at the very beginning of your career.

So focus on getting your flight instructor licenses (if you don't have them already) and try to get a flying job where someone actually pays YOU money for flying (such as instructing, etc).

Stay away from those who’ve been in this field and have a negative outlook because they are bitter (often rightfully so) but that’s not going to help you. Instead, remember that this is as bad as it gets so things simply must get better.

Do your research (which you’re doing now ), decide if it’s worth the tremendous sacrifices and then start the process in very small steps (so you don’t become overwhelmed). Remember to stay away from the half-empty types and be upbeat and one day it will happen…

I’d still do it all over again and am very happy that I decided to pursue flying…

Lab Rat

If you have the time to do it I would choose grad school. One can always go to flight school when a break in the schedule permits, but how easy is it the other way around?

Thedude

The days of going from Zero to Hero through a flight school are long gone and I don't think we will see it again for quite sometime. The last time it happened was in the 1960s. Right now its back to the way it was during the early 90s. Plenty of qualified guys on the street that are looking for jobs and when hiring does restart the competition will be fierce for a few years. I also believe we will start to see some of the RJ commuter jobs shrink in demand and a couple of the weak sisters go out of buisness.

You could get your tickets now but I hear guys are having trouble even getting CFI jobs and most CFI jobs pay crap. My suggestion is do a little flying one the side while in grad school or maybe getting rating at the end of a semester. Assuming you can swing both financially.

OttoA10

I was in a very similar situation when I graduated in '98 with an aerospace engineering degree. The difference for me was that I already had a pilot slot in ROTC. As I'm sure you are seeing already, aero engineering jobs aren't all that easy to come by right now with the economy in a recession. The aero engineering field (more so than most other engineering disciplines) is very cyclical. At the time, the Air Force was also asking for volunteers to stay in school for a Master's Degree and delay pilot training.

I have kicked myself since then for not staying to get my Master's. I agree with the poster above - you should stay in school and trying to get a Air Guard or Reserve job on the side. They should even have some tuition assistance programs you could take advantage of. The way I see it, the worst you can do is make yourself more marketable during your job search if you decide to stay in the engineering field. Then, if you end up going military, you already have your Master's (which is almost a requirement to make it past the rank of Major). If you decide that you still want to pursue commercial aviation, you will have more resources (read: money) to help you reach that goal and get past the years of crappy pay while you're building your flight time.

My .02, FWIW.

rickair7777

UCSD is not an aviation college, more engineering and science.

Like someone said, you probably want to seriously consider whether an aviation career would be stimulating enough for you. Since the industry (and most other industries) are down right now, you might want to get that graduate degree, and earn a PPL license on the side. I would suggest getting a job in your field if you can, and fly for fun on the side...that should give you a baseline for comparison.

As you probably know, most of the aerospace and defense workers in this country are over the age of 50...in the long run there should be plenty of opportunity in your field as they retire.

Cubdriver

I was in the same situation when I graduated in 2006 with an aerospace engineering degree and most of my flight tickets. On the one hand I had several $55k per year jobs making airplane parts, one of which was right in my home town. On the other I saw a long, low-paying, iffy venture lasting for decades through the regionals and possibly ending at the regionals by age 60 (as it was then). I was a bit old (38), somewhat debt ridden, and already tired of road life so for me the decision was fairly easy in favor of the desk job. Later I managed to make the best of it by getting into a flight test department of a major aircraft manufacturer and picked up a lot of part time flying. It has not been that bad a deal for someone who likes airplanes so much and had such a late start.

If I had been free from debt at 26 and had just come out of engineering school I think I would have gone on to grad school, received an M.S., built more instructing hours on the side, then launched for a good regional after that with an attitude of majors or bust. I still think this is a good plan for many but you have to plan it from your early twenties. After that the whole thing becomes very iffy. I do know people who launched careers from their late 30's but they report mixed results, and they certainly did not carry any debt in with them. None of them has made the majors yet either.

Ian178

Cool post. I'm 22 now and feel frustrated because I'm not even half-way through college right now (aerospace eng. also). I Love to see where people have graduated a little later, and had everything work out. Thanks

UCLAbruins

If I was in your shoes, I'd go to Grad school, wouldn't even think twice about it... If you enjoy flying, get your pvt and commercial along the way, maybe fly skydivers on the weekends.

Grad school bro, hands down