i am willing to take off my career as pilot but my father wants me to finish b tech in aerospace engineering?

Question

and then do my pilot training, is that prefarable, waiting for a speedy answer

Answer 1

I was in your same shoes once. The problem is that people over-estimate the value of the engineering degree. Make no mistake about it, getting a job as an aerospace engineer is not a very promising affair. The degree itself is very narrow in focus, it is also not very marketable. An individual with a mechanical engineering degree can get the same job an aerospace engineering graduate, yet the ME holder can also get jobs in other engineering disciplines just as easily and the aerospace engineering candidate will raise skeptical eyebrows during the interview.

The problem is that most people who get into aero engineering are not going into the degree to end up doing civil engineering work, so there's a lot of "tunnel vision" that affects people's ability to think rationaly and see that getting the AE degree is a wasteful pursuit.

As it pertains to compensation, people are also drinking too much of the Kool-Aid. First of all, there are very few TRUE aerospace engineering jobs out there compared to the amount of people graduating with such degrees. It doesn't hurt the universities because they know the demand is inelastic; un-informed freshmen will continue to flock the school seeking the dream. Most of these jobs pay arounf 40-50K depending on locality pay, IF you're able to get them. Then they DO NOT increase in pay for many years, and most of these jobs are technical in nature, meaning you will be doing the drudge work for years. The job security is also not great. Aerospace work relies heavily on govt contracting, and these things run in 5 or 7 year cycles. So once a project is done, YOU are done. Cyclical layoffs are routine in this industry, so if you don't want to move to the printer company next door and build printer toners after 7 years of running code for an aerospace outfit, guess what, you, the kids and the wife gotta move out of town chasing the next contract and the next contract holder (Boeing, Northrop, Lockheed...rinse and repeat).

If you're not lucky enough to keep one of these jobs, or just decided you're tired of chasing the label of "aerospace engineer" you're back to general engineering, where you'll work with Mech engs, civ engs; which is fine, but now you just worked twice as hard in school for the same job your buddy will get with his/her civil engineering degree.

As it pertains to flying, it's a wash. Much better office view, but no cakewalk. Getting your ratings will not be a problem provided you have 25-35K dollars to spend cumulative....the problem will come in getting to do it for a living. Being a professional pilot is also a really narrowly marketable deal. Most people will have to get multiple flight instructor ratings on top of your commercial certificates, instruct for a while at an average rate of $15/hr, and that's block time, meaning that's hours flown. This usually translates to a compensation equivalent to a 1/2-3/4 time retail work....i.e. you CAN make more at several retail employers. It hurts. Of course you're doing it to have enough flight time to qualify for some kind of regional airline work. But those pay first year rate of just under 20K. Ouch. You do that for anywhere between 2-7 years until you can upgrade to captain in the aircraft, then another 3-4 years logging TPIC (turbine pilot-in-command time) as captain so that you can minimally qualify for a major airline job. Then you might see 40K first year at a major, then in 5 more years you upgrade to captain at the major, and provided another 9/11 doesn't happen, you are finally making six figures. The work is also mundane at times, although 10 times much better office view than any engineering job. The job security also sucks like engineering, furloughs are a fact of life at most airlines. go to www.airlinepilotcentral.com for current pay rates for most airlines, look at the difference between regional airline work and major airline work and note the progression I stated above is pretty common as far as career progression for a proffessional pilot. I didn't talk about fractional pilots, and corporate pilots, but those fields are usually plagued by the good ol boy system, or a plethora of retired airline pilots who you will not have the flight time experience to compete against, so it's a cornered market.

So my advice, yeah finish the degree, but don't do it in aero engineering. Do it in finance, marketing, management, economics. Not in engineering. Get your pilot ratings on the side, and jump on the airline rat race as soon as practical, the sooner you have your seniority number the better. In the end, all things equal, the income potential for the airline work is much better than the engineering option, but both are not very stable career tracks to pursue. so tread with caution

Answer 2

You don't say where you plan to do pilot training. If it is through the military, he may be trying to keep you out of the Middle East for a few years.
If you are planning civilian flight training, you will be a more valuable employee to an airline or aerospace company with the degree.
From a strictly financial standpoint, it would be cheaper to get the degree first as well. College tuitions continue to increase dramatically faster than inflation. Getting your degree now rather than a year or two later could save you tens of thousands of dollars.

Answer 3

Unless you're not doing well in your engineering program, I think "father knows best" in this case. Get the engineering degree. Either start flight school while you're in the engineering program, or start it after graduation. But you will NEVER be sorry you completed your degree. And I promise that you will have regrets if you don't.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Why cant you do both at the same time?
Flying lessons are not a full time gig.
Go to school, get your degree and learn to fly on weekends.
Be ready to go any direction when you grad.
DUH