Going into this class earlier this fall, my main "plans" so to speak were to just make it through the course. It is little to no secret to both my classmates and my instructors/advisers that I have had issues maintaining my progress through the program for the past few years. Thanks to outside familial and personal issues, my progress at Eastern had stagnated and I had found myself adrift with no means of propulsion. I think that this is the semester that has helped me regain my footing on my academic career, and I am very thankful and happy to have found this new motivation and drive. I started the semester just wanting to finish. But now, after a whole semester of group discussions and guest speakers, I have a much better idea of what I would like my career to actually become. I still have not made a specific decision on one career path, but I think I will be better off in the near future for keeping my doors open. Thanks to several of the guest speakers we had, I now know about many career options that I would have never thought about, didn't think were possible, or just straight up didn't know existed.
The group setting of this class definitely helped me to open up and haves some discussion with my fellow classmates that I definitely would not have had otherwise. Usually, I am very much a person to 'go to class, take notes, go home', without much of a discussion with those around me. This class forced me to open up and discuss. I think that helped me a lot, especially with the networking side of the industry.
As of right now, my 'action plan' for graduating is to simply get there. I still have quite a bit of flying ahead of me as well as at least one full semester of classroom time for some gen-eds. All in all, I do plan on finishing up the flight aspect and trying to secure a flight instruction job either at Eagle or at a few other airports around the state that are closer to some of my family members. I also have a friend who does some surveying and crop dusting operations in the Iowa and Indiana area. He has been bugging me about finishing school because he is looking for some help as well. That is definitely a pathway I'd like to explore.
But to be honest, I can't say I have a to-the-T 5 year plan on the books. My main goals right now are to right the half-sunken ship that I left myself slip into, and to finish the handful of classes I have left.
Of all the topics we talked about, I think the most useful was the ANG/civilian hire topic. Not necessarily for what it was, but because that was the topic that most opened my eyes to the variety of aviation related jobs that are out there. I had no idea that a job like that was even a possibility. For future classes, I think it would be awesome if we were to hear from more people that have taken the unlikely/path less traveled career routes in the aviation world. At the flight center, the main mantra seems to be "Airlines or Bust". And that's great, but I can't say that it's super exciting to feel like I'm being bred for Delta. I'm not really one who thinks that a career for a major sounds all that thrilling. I mean beggars can't be choosers, and I will certainly take the opportunities that present themselves to me, but I can't say that left seating for a major is my career end goal. I would personally love to go fly bush in Alaska, or do survey flights or some other kind of more remote, small business flying.
Of all the topics we talked about, I think the absolute worst one was the flight instruction lady. It is certainly wonderful to hear from someone who has thoroughly enjoyed her career and has made a living doing something other than flying regionals and trying to climb up to a major, but I also don't like that we basically sat listening to this person stroke their ego for an hour and a half. More time was spent listening to her ramble about her accomplishments and why she's so great than was actually discussed about what made her career route something that up and coming students should look into. If she could rework her presentation, I think it could be a very useful presentation for Management students and flight students like myself who are considering flight paths away from the airlines. Otherwise, it just came across as a "look at me, I'm so cool" presentation.
Overall, this class has been an absolute blast. I am very thankful to have been a part of this class and with these classmates. I look forward to seeing all of you beautiful Eagles out there in the skies in the future.
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