Unless you want to go for certification, just skip formal classes, get a multiprocess machine so you can learn mig and stick, read, and practice…… a lot. That’s what I did. Countless hours running beads on a pad with different electrodes, flat, uphill, downhill, different joints, thick metal, thin metal, etc. Trips to the scrap metal yard can provide cheap material to learn on. I’d never earn a living, but it’s a fun hobby.

Despite all of the griping here, one only need to look at the photos in the flight ops update showing the last 8 new hire classes which are still 97%+ white guys. UA's diversity efforts are a good first step towards trying to get this place slightly more diverse.

I really don’t care about diversity. As long as the pilots that we hire are highly qualified, professional, and pleasant to work with on a 4 day trip, who cares what they look like, their politics, religion, etc?

I'm OK with outreach, but you realistically have to account for the fact that very few women actually want this lifestyle. Minorities, different story, but you need to reach out to school-age people to set them up for more future opportunities. There's no vast pool of non-white-male aviators who can't get an interview. Quite the opposite actually.

Their approach is pretty toxic to the all of the people who do make up the vast majority of their pool of realistically qualified applicants. Could they tone it down a bit perhaps? They're blatantly pandering to a public which doesn't have the slightest clue about the realities of professional aviation. Their approach simply fosters resentment and might even drive a cultural wedge, or worse, degrade safety.

Ban white new balances and tucked in polo shirts during layovers, and you'll improve diversity overnight.

If you want to go for the trifecta, add cell phone holsters to the list.

And stop wearing your damn uniform pants to the bar!

I was trying to sweep with as broad of a brush as possible.

I always enjoy this argument. Why is it that most FA's are women (afterall, there is much higher number of female FAs than there are male pilots), if women don't want/ don't like / can't handle the lifestyle???