Kenny Keller (creator of Helicopter Line Ground School) answers a viewer question about whether a college degree matters for helicopter pilot jobs. He advises that obtaining a college degree is a smart move and that an aviation degree is likely most valuable, though other degrees can help depending on the role. He shares personal experience (he succeeded without a degree), an anecdote about a young pilot who skipped college but still found work, and notes that some managerial positions and future hiring trends may favor degrees. He closes with a call-to-action to check his ground-school courses and subscribe.
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Helicopter pilot jobs, do you need college? This is a great question. I'm going to read the question from one of our members. Back to the Grind. It's a Monday morning. This would be a quick video. I feel pretty passionate about this one. I can give you a good answer. He's asked another question that we answered with video and he said, kenny, I got another question. I've been doing a lot of research on how to be competitive once I'm done with training. From what I've seen, pilots with college degrees are more competitive than pilots without degrees when being considered for pilot positions. Do you agree with that? If yes, does it matter if an aviation degree or is a degree in another field as valuable? Over the years I've seen this. I can tell you back in the day when I was every day looking for jobs, I've been there, done that. I know what it's like when you're looking every day checking the helicopter pilot jobs. I remember being disappointed when there were jobs being advertised that required a college degree. I don't have any college. Luckily I've been able to get jobs in the industry and it's never held me back. But I remember being bummed on a couple of jobs along the way where I was like, oh man, I'd apply for that. But no, I don't have college. So my answer first is going to be very smart, very wise to get a college degree. I would say yes. And he asked an aviation degree or another field just as valuable. Well, I would think an aviation degree would be more valuable than anything else, but it depends on what job you're going for. There could be certain jobs where some other area could be helpful, but I would think in general an aviation degree is going to be good. I just hired an attorney the other day to do some corporate stuff for us and I found out he had a year of aviation law. And I'm like, awesome, you know, and that was cool because right away he was able to answer some questions about my business and what I do corporate wise. And being in aviation, I was glad he had that year of aviation law. Right. So pretty darn, pretty darn powerful, I would think. I have a BS in computer science and I'm getting ready to start the professional helicopter pilot program. I realized I have to build up hours to be eligible for positions. I also realized that the first job for most pilots being an instructor pilot to get started beyond that, does a college degree matter and how much? Thanks in advance. So my first answer would be yes, get college degree if possible. I would say an aviation degree would probably be number one, the best. I've been lucky in the industry. I've got to do everything that I wanted to do, including helicopter. EMS did not at that time require a college degree. Most still don't, I don't think, but probably some of your manager positions are going to require it. I'm guessing over time more and more companies will require college. I haven't seen an increase of it, but I'm not watching job postings every day like a lot of you out there. So we'd love to hear your feedback down below what you're seeing on how many jobs require college. I'm going to give you an example of a young man who didn't go to college and he's out there doing the helicopter tree sawing. He came to me when he was brand new not long after getting out of high school. He just got into college and his parents came in with him and they were like, we want him to finish college and then pursue the helicopter career. What do you think? And I'm like, well, I would keep going to college in the summer fly helicopters. So you're getting a college degree and then the summertime fly and then eventually use both. At a certain point he said, heck with it, he quit college, he ended up getting a commercial. He ended up getting a company that after he did the road dog work, trained him in the helicopter. I'll put the link up there and also put it down below where you can go see this helicopter tree sawing. So there's an example where a young man was gonna do the college, didn't, but still got lucky in the industry. Again, it didn't stop me. So I would think I want to hear your comments down below. But good common sense would say, yes, get a degree if possible. Yes, get it in aviation if possible. Because I just think it's going to be better for you down the road. It's going to open doors and open possibilities. So any young person, or any person that you have to be necessarily young, anybody that would come to me and say, what do you think I should get a college degree? Although I didn't do it, I would recommend it. I think it's a great idea and I think over time you will see more companies requiring a college degree. So put your comments down below. I'm Kenny Keller, creator of Helicopter Line Ground School. I'm gonna put a link down below for our ground school or you could take any of our courses for 24 hour test drive, private commercial, CFI and instrument on the monthly or yearly options. You can have the 24 hour test drive. Go in, check out the training, see what it's all about. If you're not happy with the training, remove your credit card or end your subscription PayPal. Before the end of the 24 hours, we part as friends and you're welcome back anytime. So I'm Kenny Keller, creator, Helicopter Line Gallon School Coffee with Kenny Videos. This was a quick one. I'm glad to get to this and get off to the airport. So back to the grind. Please click subscribe. Please click the bell when you subscribe. Please leave your comments down below and we will see you tomorrow. Tomorrow it's going to be on the cyclic Tips on using a cyclic Use the force, Luke. All right, we'll see you tomorrow.
