Expert: David A. NewMyer - 5/2/2010

Question
I am currently in the Air Force as a jet troop or aerospace propulsion professional aka jet engine mechanic. I am pursing a degree in professional aeronautics from Embry Riddle and I intend to leave the military in 5 years with my A&P licence a BS from Embry and 6 years experience fixing jet engines. What I really want to know is what careers would be made available to me at that point other then being a pilot, and furthermore which of the available careers would be most profitable. Also your personal opinion on which of the jobs you feel are the all around best.

Answer
Hi, Matthew:

Nice to hear from you, I will try to assist!

First of all, the A and P plus the BS plus the experience in the USAF working on jet engines is a good combination of qualifications and experience to have under your belt!

Second, as far as the available careers:

1.  You can certainly work as a mechanic/aviation technologist with a number of different kinds of operators, including:

A.  An airline---in this instance, you will want to go with an airline like American, Delta, or UPS or FEDEX that has a decent future ahead of it, still does a fair amount of its own maintenance (American and Delta still overhaul their own aircraft in Tulsa and the DFW for AA and in ATL for Delta while UPS and FEDEX do less overhaul and more line maintenance)....

B.  Corporate Aviation---the larger flight departments within corporate aviation hire mechanics and these are the creme-de-la-creme jobs in aircraft maintenance.  The problem is that, getting your foot in the door normally requires that you make connections with those already in the field to figure out which of those companies are good to work for, which are most stable and which are hiring.....

C.  An MRO or maintenance/repair organization.  These are large companies to whom airlines and others contract maintenance.  They are the larger FAR 145 Repair Stations.  Some of these have good reputations and some do not.  You will have to do some reading and planning to figure out if there are companies like this that you would like to work for or not.  This can include the companies who operate within a military overhaul depot for aircraft such as the one at Tinker AFB, among others.  You will turn around and work for a civilian contractor who works for the USAF but make more money doing that than you would in the USAF.

In addition, your skill set might fit well with an aviation or aerospace manufacturer, especially one whose products you have worked on (Boeing or Lockheed Martin or GE or whatever).  In the case of a manufacturer, you might not work as a mechanic but as a person who helps design teh aftermarket support systems for an aviation or aerospace product that a manufacturer is producing.  Or, you might work in business development or sales or contract management---any area where your knowledge of aviation and aircraft systems (as well as the USAF and how it works) will help the manufacturer with its business.

My take on what jobs might be the all around best would be those jobs where your skill set fits the best---and these also will likely be the employers that are willing to pay the best AND have the best benefits.  My take on that would be to either work for a manufacturer (many of them have excellent education benefits, among others---where you can essentially get an MBA or other graduate degree for free as a benefit, etc) or work for a civilian contractor for the military (which might also end up being a manufacturer if you end up being a technical representative for GE aircraft engines, for example).

I hope that this helps.

All the best,

Dave NewMyer, Ph.D., Professor and Chair
Aviation Management and Flight
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
http://www.aviation.siu.edu