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A Commercial Pilot Pioneers A New Route Into Airline Management
When I was a student at Harvard Business School, one of my classmates told me that the shortest route to being an officer of a major company was to earn an MBA degree and work for an airline. He confidently pointed out that airlines had more vice presidents as a percentage of all workers than almost any other industry. In those days, most top airline jobs were filled with pilots and MBAs were scarce.
Over the years since then, I have often chatted with pilots for major airlines who were riding as passengers going to or from their flight assignments. Almost all reported having a high-quality lifestyle: Well-above average income, few hours worked per week, and plenty of time and energy to explore a hobby or a personal business.
The only drawback was that they were away from home a lot, although less often than many traveling salespeople.
However, in the last decade career paths in airlines haven't looked nearly as good as they once did. Many airlines have asked executives and pilots to reduce their salaries. Many stock options have become worthless. Pension plans are often depleted of resources. Through frequent trips into bankruptcy, being a senior executive can bring the kind of stress that most physicians encourage their patients to avoid.
In such a troubled business environment, it's clear that new career paths need to be pioneered if commercial aviation is going to provide the kinds of psychological and tangible rewards that used to be taken for granted in the industry. Let's take a look at pilots today as an example.
Traditionally, most commercial pilots started their careers by flying high-performance aircraft in very demanding ways. By comparison, piloting a commercial jumbo jet is a lot more like driving a bus on a fairly empty road.
Hopefully, the only exciting moments for commercial pilots come in well-controlled circumstances when instructors "create" severe conditions and mechanical problems in flight simulators.
What does such a pilot have to look forward to besides retirement? Many hope to become qualified to fly larger planes for which they will be paid more. In addition, flying larger planes means logging their flight time on longer routes so they aren't away from home as much.
Many of these commercial pilots joined the military right out of high school or during college. As a result, they don't have a lot of other skills to fall back on for seeking alternative careers.
What could a commercial pilot do today to upgrade a career after already flying a fleet's largest aircraft? There is one higher level job: Airlines usually have a chief pilot, but that position is usually attained only briefly before retirement. If you want to do something else, what's next?
Richard Smit, an MBA graduate from Rushmore University, shared with me his experiences in upgrading his commercial piloting career. When he started looking for opportunities, he was well equipped with military flight qualifications, an ATP license, experience as a test pilot, and an instructor rating. He was fortunate to have also gained fairly extensive experience in airline management.
But in his piloting, he wasn't being stretched. Analyzing his situation, Mr. Smit realized that an MBA degree would open new career doors by adding academic credibility to his extensive knowledge and practical experience. At the same time, he looked forward to gaining more confidence in non-piloting roles from having a management credential.
MBA studies have a reputation for leading to divorces almost as often as to degrees. He didn't want to harm his family or leave his high-flying career as a top pilot. Part-time, online MBA studies seemed like the ideal solution.
Going back to school was a difficult transition. Graduate school in business is much less structured than a pilot is used to. But after a bit, he found the academic freedom to be unexpected and refreshing.
After telling colleagues about starting his business studies, Mr. Smit was surprised that he was often asked to participate in special projects and to work on management issues. As a result, he was much busier than usual at work and during what little remained of his personal time.
It was worth it. After graduating, all the hard work paid off: His airline created a desirable new position that was pretty much tailor-made for him, advancing him well ahead of pilots with more seniority.
Mr. Smit served as Manager, Flight Operations Quality Systems & Special Projects, a position that gave him lots of freedom to innovate and work with the airline's CEO and other international airlines at the most senior levels.
To illustrate, he frequently obtained the necessary authorization to tackle projects that had been labeled "impossible". This kind of work was done when he was not piloting an Airbus A340, adding a new dimension to his career. That suited him just fine.
The special projects part of his responsibilities has been especially challenging. In one case, he was seconded to the national airline in a neighboring country, where he headed up a team of consultants.
The consulting team was to completely restructure the operations departments (including Cargo, Ground-Ops, Flight-Ops, Cabin Services, Emergency Response, and Security) to ensure that the airline was fully compliant with international safety regulations, and would be re-admitted into EU and US airspaces.
In this new role, he had the best of both worlds: He could dabble in any top-management issues he liked while being able to knock on any doors he needed to for help.
Despite being exhilarated by the breadth of his new world view and the scope of his responsibilities, Mr. Smit has recently been granted a "time-out" from his management duties at the airline. Why? He wants to go back to school to earn a Ph.D. so that he can master even greater challenges in improving airline performance and safety. What a nice way to raise the ceiling so that he can fly higher in his career!
Are you a military or a commercial pilot? Have you considered how an MBA degree could help you expand your career opportunities? If not, you should.
If you aren't a pilot but see your career opportunities narrowing or becoming limited, an MBA degree can also be a door opener for you. Take a close look!
Naturally, if you want to do even more, consider how a doctorate could establish you as a world-class authority who would be sought after by many different organizations.
Remember: A successful career owes a lot to careful preparation, the right training, and navigating away from dangerous aspects of routes.
About the Author Donald W. Mitchell is a professor at Rushmore University, an online school, who often works with pilots and airline executives to enhance their careers. For more information about ways to engage in fruitful lifelong learning at Rushmore to increase your effectiveness and improve your career, visit http://www.rushmore.edu
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