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Thank you all for the help!

That was also my thought. I feel like there’s something the previous commenter forgot to mention that led to all those offers. I’ve worked retail management, been a military officer (not flying), and a pilot. Being a pilot was more different than similar to the other jobs.

Your stereotypical “went straight to aviation college after high school then did CFI and went to a regional” pilots probably by and large don’t have the experience, training, or soft skill set to jump into [insert random reasonably well compensated management job here]. Sure, some folks have that gift and others can fake it til they make it, but that learning curve is steep. I’ve flown with more than a handful of guys that struggle to manage the guy in the seat next to them.

Now that’s a stereotypical path and there’s plenty of ex-military and I’m sure even plenty of career changers/folks that worked their way through college, but it ain’t the aviation management degree and type rating that are making them good candidates. I’m guessing that’s probably the case here.

At any rate, color me skeptical.

This is not correct.

Depends on the STEM field. Some are so impacted they'll hire anyone with the degree. Especially in the defense sector where you need a security clearance... none of the green-card STEM workers are eligible.

Also there's always sales... an older, life experienced person with some interesting stuff to talk about is a good fit for technical sales. You just need a relevant degree for credibility and so you can talk the talk. BTDT, almost no actual technical work involved.

If you want a good, all around STEM degree that is useful for just about anything, get a degree in mathematics. When I was looking at graduate school a few years ago, just about every program had a list of specific undergraduate degrees that were a prerequisite for admission, and a degree in mathematics was on every single list. If you want to go to business school, medical school, law school, engineering school, get a masters in psychology, biology, international government, aviation management, or just about anything else, an undergraduate degree in mathematics will meet the requirements. If I had to go back an do college again, I would get my degree in mathematics.

Along those lines, I did look into getting a second bachelors in mathematics a few years ago, and Chadron State College in Nebraska (a regionally accredited brick and mortar school that is part of the University of Nebraska system) was offering a distance learning bachelors in mathematics for around $6,000 per year, flat rate, regardless of residency status.

That is definitely one of the more difficult routes to go. It takes a special type of discipline to get a degree in mathematics, it is not for everybody.

Thats an understatement lol. I feel like the math degrees really require people who are passionate about it, unlike some of the more general degrees. You have to REALLY like math do major in it. More power to those people, way smarter than I will ever be, at least in that regard.

Totally agree. I loved math through trig/algebra 2, eventually it got to a point where things no longer translated well to the physical world and I got completely lost. Give me a triangle and I’m happy, derivatives make my head spin.

Yup, math can open a lot of doors. Physics is another one, lots of math plus you get to relate math to the real world (and the surreal world).