ARL120384

Anyone out there who got hired without a 4 year degree with DAL or CAL?

ARL

rickair7777

There may have been people in the past, but I'm willing to bet not recently at DAL. Not sure about CAL, but if they say they require one, assume they mean it.

Unless you have a relative who is a senior corporate officer at a major airline, you are going to need that degree. Your profile hints that you might be an eagle FO? If so, you have all the time in the world...

Superpilot92

DAL wants it.

CAL says they do but they have hired MANY without it.

ARL120384

Good info thanks. I would like to get my four year (currently only have an AS) but I cant justify it financially just to apply for a job.

Thanks

seaav8tor

WHEN and IF hiring ever starts again the fact that you don't have it will put you at a significant disadvantage. So much so that you will probably get stuck at a commuter.

That being said the really big picture shot with a wide angle lens over the last 20 years shows the airline pilot wannabe minimum requirements have drastically declined (along with pay..... hence they cannot be so selective).

Great news if you didn't meet one of the "old school" requirements. Bad news if you thought the career going forward was going to pay more than a plumber.

Old school, heavy iron you needed: (some unwritten but none the less required or it was a very long shot)

(1) 4 year degree
(2) Military Flight training
(3) 20/20 vision
(4) psych testing
(5) aptitude testing
(6) company physical exam
(7) height / weight limits
(8) ATP MEL
(9) FEW or rating
(10) Big fat log with jet time
(11) subjective interview evaluation 100 times more stringent than today, (how is this guy going to look in our uniform.... Cary Grant... hired... or... next)


Many remnants from the above list remain but are only a shadow of their former self. Without taking a position good/bad on the ramifications of those changes I will simply point out a couple facts:

All of the requirements have been reduced over the long haul. Perhaps in conjunction with a community college MPL program we will see the 4 year requirement go away in the future.

By casting a wider net many more people are now able to do the job. As a result the supply of pilots is now, for all practical purposes, and with MPL, unlimited. This is why "It's not your father's airline pilot paycheck". And, it's why looking forward pay is going to continue down. Big time after MPL hits the US.

If you are just starting out, don't ever say 30 years from now you were never warned the career would not pay off financially.

You just were.

Excel

Holly cow, you have hit the industry "nail" on the head!!

Dude... Get your degree. 90% of our population has a degree. If you spend the same amount of time logging on to this site as you do logging on to online classes you would have it sooner than you think...

Ottopilot

I know one guy at CAL without a degree and he came from Express via the flow through. I know it's hard to attend school with a flying job and/or family, but online degrees do work. Most people have enough time in hotels and at home to do it quickly.

sailingfun

Get the degree, Major airlines are looking more for managers then pilots. They want someone who can make the correct call in difficult situations that often occur on the ground and have nothing to do with flying the aircraft. Cancel a international flight overseas and the revenue loss can exceed half a million dollars before they get the aircraft back in sync. That is where many fail in todays interviews. They want a pilot for sure but they also want a manager. A degree is one aspect of getting the quality they want. Show up for the interview without it and your making a statement that you are not serious about putting your max effort into your career.

acl65pilot

It has been stated that when the hiring groups of the majors got together two years ago, that all were going to require a degree.
Last time around I had a bud that could not get to CAL b/c he did not have a degree, went to Redwood instead.
DAL, do not try unless it is a four year degree from an Accredited College or University. I will assure you that we have a database that we check the schools out it. In needs to be currently accredited. If it lost it accreditation, you may have some issues.(Know of two people this dinged) Also three year degrees from Europe are not desired. I have seen one person with that type of degree not get the interview.

IE not mail order degree. Get a good degree, it is worth it.

acl65pilot

To add to it further. We know you can fly, we do not do a sim ride, and if you suck, DAL will fire you while you are on probation. I have seen it done four times this last hiring wave.
Sailing is correct. We are looking for level headed, cool tempered managers. That is one thing that I see here sans the regionals, all the guys I have flown with have a ton of perspective, and are very slow to boil. (It does not mean that we do not whine and complain behind a close door, it just means that we know the proper place.)