FAA Hiring Controllers starting Tomorrow!
 

If you guys are under age 31 (or have kids who are)...and have any interest in becoming a controller, the FAA has a job vacancy that opens Monday February 10th. Probably open for a week or two. This is for "off the street" hiring.

We need a lot of people. Salary and benefits are VERY good. (For example...base salary at LA Center is around 145K once certified. With overtime (I work it every week) the salary goes way, way above that.

Paid training by FAA, awesome retirement package, and a pretty cool job where you can where shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops to work.

Salary increases through training: IE: 55K, 65K, 89K, 112K, 145K (that's an example at LA Center). Took me about 17 months to go from 55K to full certified.

Obviously, not everybody goes to high level traffic facilities, but the job benefits and salary are still very good across the board.


Resumes Ready? Air Traffic Controller Openings Go Public Tomorrow. No Experience Needed. - Forbes

If any of you guys have questions, feel free to PM me.

Looks like a sweet gig if you are open to moving!

I believe they allow you to pick states where you want to go. I was originally offered Indy Center, but for different reasons, (namely..wanting to start sooner) took LA Center. I was Offered Anchorage, Oakland, and LA as alternates.

Being a tower controller allows more movement. (many more towers than radar centers).

In fact, I will be working tonight from 2245 until 0645 tomorrow morning. it's my "Friday" today. I am off tomorrow during the day. Overtime on Tuesday afternoon, the Wednesday I am off. Back to work on Thursday evening.

Interesting. What is the regular work schedule?

I've heard that the pressure can sometimes be intense.

How many high-pucker-factor days a month do you typically have?

it depends where you work(high or low density/complexity) and how good you are at it.
If your very good at it fewer pucker moments, if you struggle ...well it happens a bit more often.

What kind of hours does an ATC work?

Seems like a pretty interesting job.

The age restriction thing sucks otherwise I'd apply.

Schedule varies based on what type of facility you work at. Some small towers aren't open late and don't open super early, so you'd never work late night.

The watch schedules are usually determined on the local level. I work in a very big/busy facility, so we work 24/7/365. We also work the more "diverse" schedules in ATC.

For example, this is my current schedule, which differs from the normal schedule where I work:

Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: 1400 to 2300 (9 Hours)
Friday: 1230 to 2130 (9 hours)
Saturday 1230 to 1930 (7 hours)
Sunday 0630 to 1330 (7 hours)

Now, at this point, I either go back to work on Sunday night at 2245 and work until 0645 Monday morning (I just did this..just got home from work 5 minutes ago)...or I'm off on Sunday at 1330, then just go to work on Monday from 0630 to 1430.

Tuesday: OT, 1500 to 2300 (8 hours)

I prefer my schedule..I don't have to wake up early, and I can go to the gym before work most days. Working the overnight shift is a cool thing (every other week)...good way to end the week with an easy shift.

atcjorg said it well. Different factors. I'm proud to say I work in the busiest/most complex area of my facility. I work arrival flow to every airport in SoCal, along with departure flow. I have very little overflight traffic. Most of my job is sequencing, vectoring, and climbing and diving airplanes. It's the fastest paced, highest traffic volume area at LA Center.

Some guys handle the stress, others don't. If you're a weak stick, stuff ruffles your feathers much easier. When I first got certified, I certainly was much more conservative and nervous when it got busy. Now, it's so automatic, that it just works. I can carry on a conversation with a co-worker while I'm talking to 20 airplanes on my frequency. Not bragging, but the human mind just adapts to this job very quickly.

I've noticed changes in my life because of this job. I used to be a very patient person. My patience is much less then it used to be. My short term memory is worse. (when I work, I intake, process, analyze so much information that I have to discard it instantly and keep working with new info.)

All in all, like atcjorg said...if you're good, the job is a breeze.

I believe it has one of the higher suicide rates of any occupations. Definitely not employment for the slow-paced, low key folks. I thrive on stress and fast pace, so I think it sounds like fun.:)

Do you have to speak English? :confused:
.
.
:rolleyes:

Ya know what. Even though this is totally out of my realm of expertise I may just give it a shot. I have been fascinated by planes/atc my whole life.

Thanks for the heads up Mike!

Worked out with an ATC at a local club...we spotted each other on the bench.
He said that he HAD to physically drain himself in order to sleep.

I used to hang out with an ATC a few years ago and he loved the work. He was at ONT for many years and now at SFO I believe. He will probably retire in a few years as he is 52-54 I think.

It does look like a cool gig. I'd be joining you in the application pool, but I'm not looking to relocate, and I'm not sure I could handle being inside for 8hrs/day everyday. I about went cuckoo working behind the counter in the pharmacy.

May the best man win. ;)

Not too concerned about the 8 hrs inside. I have been riding a desk for 5 years now. It's time for a mid-life crisis. :D

Mike,
Is this the position? Also what 401(k) plans are offered? Pension?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1392052664.jpg

I emailed you Tom.

Yeah, I think if there is any interest, people should apply. You can always say no if you get offered a job and don't think it's for you. ...But it's rare to have this opportunity to apply.

The FAA has been filling up my work (Army) email with these announcements. I suspect that many young Army ATC folks will be hitting the door running. Starting salary is about 3X what they are making in the Army. Of course they will be working a whole lot more for the FAA than they are for the Army. The FAA is casting a wide net. The e-mails must be going to everyone as I am not now nor have I ever been an ATC in the Army.

All the decent looking women in the FAA work in ATC.
Just sayin'

That's sorta like saying "decent looking female engineer". I suspect the bar is set pretty low.:cool:

That compensation is fantastic but the responsibility is huge, so it makes sense. There are plenty of people busting their asses for a fraction of that pay, though.

A couple questions, just out of curiosity: 1) If the person relieving you is late or does not show up, (car accident/overslept/whatever), you don't leave, I'm assuming? 2) Does every pilot in the world have to speak/understand English? How does that work?

That's kinda what I was thinking... Does that mean those are the ones with less facial hair than me?

LOL. Correct on both counts. I should have specified "when compared to Thatcher, Albright type looks." But a scale is still a scale.

LOLOLOLOL that is what we call TRACON ( radar room that is dimly lit) pretty lol, but as discussed earlier good gig if u like it, if you like chess this may be for you, if you like to think on your feet and be adaptable this may be for you. Are you able to think not where they are now but where they are going to be in the future then this may be for you, someone asked about the pension(which I am currently enjoying) look up TSP thrift savings plan and the retirement plan is called fers. Not for the shy or meek. You don't have to work in the busiest places but that's where the money is.

1) correct under rare circumstances that could happen, work until relieved or the facility closes, if it's a 24hr facility you are rarely alone. 2) english is the international language of atc however lets say their grasp of the english language is limited at times so speak slowly and clearly and leave extra room for something "unexpected"

there's hot. then there's aviation hot. I will say though...there are some girls at the center who are hot-hot. and some women who are totally hot cougars. for the most part though...it's aviation-hot

Yep, where I work, there are several hundred controllers employed there.

There are six "areas" at LA center. Each area is broken up into 6-8 sectors of airspace. During a given day shift, each area has about 11-12 controllers working it. At night time, the numbers are lower...maybe 7-9. On the overnight shift, we have two controllers work in each area.

I've only had one time where I got stuck on position because somebody didn't show up...and it was late at night. I had to stick around an extra 30 minutes. You can't just get up and walk away from it.

And yes, English is the international language for aviation. We have to be deemed "English Proficient." (Both pilots and controllers have this. I have this stamp on both my pilot ratings and my controller credentials).

The biggest English issues are Russian pilots and IFTA trainees. IFTA students are Asian pilots being trained here in the US. Very hard to understand and tend to have issues with following instructions properly. Oh yeah...and whenever I work VFR aircraft, I usually take extra care to go slow with them and to make them not feel intimidated. Even guys with fine English get nervous when they check onto a busy sector. Sometimes they get nervous when they check onto my frequency and they hear me rattling off clearances every 2-3 seconds while working a push of LAX arrivals.

Thank you for that, I wish every controller had that same attitude. I can't tell you how many times I've been in JFK and the controllers are just railing some poor foreign crew. I know they're supposed to be proficient but how does it help the situation to get the guy even more flustered?

I'll have to check in as 'Pelican' next time I fly into LAX to see if you're on freq. Do you work approach, tower, both?

I work at LA Center. I work from the surface up to the moon. you can catch me on 133.55 if you're on the RIIVR2 or 133.2 if you guys come in on the SEAVU2. those are two of my 6 sectors. Initials are PB. basically I work the airspace from Boulder City to Needles to Blythe west to LAX

I would check in as 'Giant Pelican' or 'Polar Pelican' but I'm thinking we may have gotten in enough trouble in your sector recently:eek:

Are there any waivers for the age cuttoff? Considerations for aviation experience?

unfortunately, no. Because of the mandatory age retirement of 56 (unless you were previously hired in a 2152 series position before age 31), 31 is the age cutoff.

...you need to be able to get 25 years federal service to qualify for retirement.

Paging Ted...come in Ted...the only man I've met w/ shorter finger nails than mine. Retired...atcjorg must know him from SAN.

I think atjorg was at SoCal Tracon, but I might be wrong.

yes SoCal tracon for me, my plan towards the end of my career was to go to SAN (Lindbergh tower) with 3-5 yrs left and enjoy the view, unfortunately it didn't work out that way but that is all history
no regrets

did you know Jim Kasara?