If anyone has the time to answer a couple of questions, it would be extremely appreciated. I’m a recent college grad, and ATC seems like a rewarding career. I have started to look into it, and It seems like I have just missed some sort of major national deadline where everyone has to apply at once? Is there no other way to attempt to get a career off the ground (pun intended) without waiting a whole year to apply? Im assuming that that application is for some sort of academy and there’s only one in the U.S.? Please lmk if there’s any links to ATC jobs that I can apply to at this moment!
Thanks for reading this.
you missed the off the street hiring bid that is typically once a year or twice a year maybe. Gives you plenty of time to read up.
unfortunately you can’t just apply to ATC jobs, that’s not how it works.
Pointsixtyfive forum would be the easiest way to become acquainted with the hiring process, start there.
I’m in the same boat. Just missed the cutoff. Going to be researching for a while to make sure I want to apply.
The career is what you make of it.
If you’re good at the job, the only times you question your life choice are on days when things go completely out of your control like weather or freak spurts of truly ball busting traffic that leave questioning how you could have done it better if you’d just done X, Y, or Z. The session may have gone fine, but there’s always room to improve. There’s always a way you could have done something better, and you dwell on it a bit, and your coworkers will backseat/hindsight control and gently let you know that [insert terrible controller who shouldn’t be certified] would’ve handled that perfectly, and you respond with something about how you couldn’t hear them because they had too many management dicks in their mouth, and life goes on.
The shift work sucks, there’s no way around it. You don’t get the luxury of holidays off all the time, you have to pick vacations a year in advance and hope you have a high enough seniority to get the days off you want. You might miss Christmas or anniversaries or birthdays because those days are taken before you, and unless you use sick leave there’s usually no way out of work otherwise.
Your coworkers can make or break your facility, your RDOs, or your shift. If the facility gels together it’s amazing, if it’s petty squabbles day in and day out, it can really take a toll on you.
The rewarding aspect for a lot of us is different. For some it’s as simple as the job itself, moving people to and from in the busiest most complex and safest airspace in the world (granted some places are simpler than others, we all play a role in the giant puzzle of the NAS.)
For others, myself included, the Union fills that role. From accountability of training programs, to labor relations with management, to legislative activities, sleep studies, whatever. Knowing you have a hand in protecting your profession and co-workers is incredibly satisfying.
I wouldn’t trade this job for anything.
Point me in the direction where I can make what I make without a college degree, that has job security, that has these benefits, a strong Union, and most importantly that i can make dick jokes at on a daily basis and belittle trainees for being stupid.
I can tell you that becoming ATC in the military was the best choice I ever made. As for the FAA, I’ll consider my input valid when I’m done with training. Training sucks. Just when you think you’re doing well, bam. Kick right to the balls.
Here’s the thing: I love the money. I love the importance of the job. I love being a public servant. But the brutal monotony of daily control, the grinding schedule of rotating shift work, understaffing and continual overtime and the petty squabbling between management and controllers really really gets to me. Not a day goes by where I don’t consider going back to the IT field or starting my own business again, but the money and the work always pull me back from the brink.