ThumbsUp

It wouldn’t be difficult to do at the many degree mills out there. If you want to get a respected degree that is worth the paper that it’s printed upon, that’s another story. That being said, look at the bios of the pilots serving in management positions. If that’s your goal, I think you’ll find very few have MBAs, but advanced degrees in something else. My graduate degrees have nothing do with aviation, but have also served me zero other than ticking a box on an application and maybe moved me ahead of the guy that only had a masters.

thrust

It's not really a secret.

AllYourBaseAreB

instead of getting an MBA just brown nose your chief, volunteer for extra duties, become a CKA, or do union work. All pathways to mgmt jobs

NuGuy

The only education that seems to make a difference in climbing the ladder is a law degree. People I've seen who get that done seem to get their chit cashed fairly rapidly, and after a brief tour of the CPO or training department, are elevated into the director ranks post haste.

CRJCapitan

I am curious as to why that is.

FriendlyPilot

Skip the MBA. It's a waste of time.

Instead go learn one of the following languages - Python, Java, C++.

Get certified in cyber security, cloud computing (AWS, etc), database warehousing or data analytics. Also anything that is AI related.

Even being great with Wordpress will get you farther than an MBA today and you can learn all of this online.

Pick ONE tech skill and learn everything about it. Kubernetes, AWS, S3, etc.

The MBA was necessary years ago if you were going work full-time in Production Management or Finance, but today it is a worthless degree unless you go to Harvard, Stanford or Penn (Wharton).

at6d

In my opinion, a degree without a skill set and experience don’t go far when the market is flooded with the same credentials. A degree for the sake of personal growth, sure—nothing wrong with more education, but what’s the final goal? To work after retirement?

If you are worried about furlough, You can do much more out of the gate with a skill set and a credential where you can use your hands. A CDL, welding, or mechanical certification would have you employed immediately vs. starting at the bottom of the MBA pool.

Second the C++ or other coding. I had a link somewhere to a free learn C++. I’m sure it’s searchable.

flensr

An MBA in a correspondence course environment is absolutely possible while working at a major. Just don't expect it to be fast. 1-2 courses at a time gets you through in 2-3 years. 1 course is fairly easy, taking 2 at a time could suck up a great deal of your free time.

If you're sitting reserves and not getting used, online courses are a great way to fill time if you find yourself wasting your life away waiting for a call (ie. commuting to reserve and hanging out in a crew room or hotel). This is a pretty common practice among military officers, filling in dead time while deployed taking online courses.

You'd have to have pretty good control of your schedule to make an on-campus classroom program work. If you KNOW you're gonna be doing nothing but weekend reserves for the forseeable future though, why not sign up for some tues/thurs classes at a local college and get going on it?

CRJCapitan

Solid advice.

Even if it was all weekend reserve, I feel like there wouldn't be enough bidding power to guarantee I'd get those less-desired days off consistently. And I would be worried about bypassing a bid status that would lead to reduced income. I wouldn't completely rule that out, but I feel like the cost of the MBA and the opportunity cost would be too great at that point.

The online MBA just seemed like a better fit in terms of flexibility. That flexibility also seems to allow for an opportunity to get a degree from a more presitigious program, as I would be pretty limited in my options if I'm just looking within a certain radius. I could certainly be reading too much into that though.

Noisecanceller

If you want to get into management at an airline I feel like your time is better spent networking with the people already in management since you already work at an airline. The goofs running my shop are running it into the ground and stuffing their pockets with millions in the process. I don’t think you need an MBA to do that just a network and online school doesn’t get you a network. Becoming a cheif pilot gets you plugged in.