Is being an Air Traffic Controller underrated?
The average salary for an Air Traffic Controller in the US is around 120k USD, and you´ll never work a minute over 8 hours, therefore guaranteeing a very good Work-Life Balance.
Opinions?
Sure it's only 8 hours a day, but work-life balance is not just measured in hours worked. Thousands of lives are in your hands each second and a single fuck-up can be deadly.
It’s stressful as fuck, unless you’re a complete sociopath.
So perfect for your average WSO user
+1 SB. To your point, I've seen people in finance handle hundreds of millions in other people's money with the slightest concern other than their own payout.
No, it's a very different kind of stress.
extremely high-stress job. the pay/hour correlation is directly related to this. also, when you say 8 hours don't think you'd start working a "normal" 9-5. air traffic is continuous, so you may have to work early morning or late night shifts.
also, think again about going out to a bar the night before a shift or having a few "with the boys".
Yeah its similar with pilots.
Before my sister made captain at a major airline, she was flying co-pilot and she texted me to have a few drinks on a layover in NYC. The Captain came along for some drinks and my sister got tired and went to sleep as they had an early flight. This guy was wild. When she was still there, he started ordering rounds of shots and my sister refused, but I was on board 100% - I didn't have anything to do in the morning. Well, he invited the waitress out for drinks and we all went out (except my sister who was asleep) with some friends of the waitress. We shut down the bars at 4am and he said he would tip the bartender to keep going. I think we finished at 4:45am. It was late AF. The dude was super cool, but apparently he was flying in a few hours. I asked my sister about him if he made the flight and she said he was on time and fine. It was like an 8:30am departure. He had to have not slept much at all and must have still had a buzz on. I thought it was crazy - I asked my sister how late he said he stayed out - and she said he told her he went to sleep 'early' - haha yeah right bro. Well, at least no one died that day.
Also a big plus - this Captain paid for everyone - all the shots and all the drinks. What a guy. The girls loved him even though he was much older.
Sounds like Denzel Washington's character in the movie flight.
The upside to you doing a good job every day is no one dies. The downside is unlimited.
remember this guy from Breaking Bad - his daughter OD'ed then he lost it and crashed a plane as an Air Traffic Controller at work - tough.
That's what you get for fucking with Heisenberg
Good series. might have to watch again
Boring and stressful. You can only make it worse.
I follow a few people who track aviation stuff day in day out. They make it look enjoyable at times. The career is what you make of it as long as you understand the layouts of what planes are arriving/departing and understanding emergency codes. I used to work at an airport, and the calls we get about emergencies would get everyone gunning through the airport airfield (smoke on plane, patient emergency).
Overall satisfaction varies between each person. I'd see about shadowing someone if you are able to or read more about it. Work Life wise, I would say that they routinely pull 10-12 hour days when staff are low/called out. Pay is good and job security is there though.
I started a career path almost 20 years ago where going to Air Traffic Control school was a requirement.
ATC school was a 4 month school including simulation at Biloxi AFB in MS. After that you get your pin and are ATC qualified. I’d say going the military route for ATC is recommended.
I didn’t make it through the whole school, but it covered quite a lot. It is challenging work and is one of the best civilian crossovers from the enlisted side. I know a guy who got qualified in the USAF and got out and has been making around $200K for a while. I think eventually you get used to the stress, but it’s not for everyone.
I left ATC school in the spring and was in military college that fall. Part of the reason I didn’t make it through ATC school was because of sleep deprivation from CCT training, but I’ve heard they have since eased up on heavy training for CCTers in ACT school as the attrition rate was too high.
If you’re just doing ATC - it should be manageable and lead to a good career on the civilian side. USAF would definitely be the preferred path. Tech also has improved since I have studied ATC and I would imagine the position is slightly easier.
I heard Investment Analyst is a great job. Pays £22k, 36 hours a week, and you only need 4 GCSEs to get in.
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/investment-analyst
120 is a shitty salary considering you ur career is capped at that number with no more advancement
$120K isn't the cap
https://www.careerexplorer.com/careers/air-traffic-controller/salary/
Top 20% is $206.6K
Are ATCs typically unionized with the old school pension and all?
Honestly, if you're a badass, CCT is the route to go. You can go out and do spec ops shit and also you become an ATC. They are basically forward deployed Air Traffic Controllers, to land C-130s and call out airstrikes while forward deployed. Their motto is 'first there' as they are literally the first on the ground. ATC school is part of the training, but also the intro course, jump wings from Ft. Benning, combat diver school in Key West FL, and HALO/HAHO training in AZ. The training pipeline is more comprehensive than Navy SEALs. They basically jump out of the plane with 2 rucksacks - one is full of gear and the other is a complete ATC set of tools to call in planes and air strikes. Sometimes a dirtbike is deployed out of the airplane so they can make an airfield and lights for C-130s to land, in enemy territory - so at times you have to take out all the enemy combatants on your own and then call in everyone else (SEALs, Rangers).
Every meal in CCT training, we went to the mess hall and had to carry a telephone pole there and back. When we got to the door, we had to say this to eat:
"The CCT mission is to deploy undetected into combat and hostile environments to establish assault zones or airfields, while simultaneously conducting air traffic control, fire support, command and control, direct action, counter-terrorism, foreign internal defense, humanitarian assistance and special reconnaissance."
Then, with full stomachs, they'd throw us into the pool. Some people's stomach were upset, but you get used to it.
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Just be prepared for any kind of terrorist attack. You can check it out from the classic documentary called 'Die Hard 2'. Very realistic.
I also recommend Ozark for Money Laundering Advice
My dad has actually been an ATC for his whole life. He capped at like $250K in the tower before he aged out and moved into management, don't know what he makes now. Stress is high and WLB isn't really great. He worked 10PM-6AM for ten years so he could make it to our sports games, dance recitals, bring us to school, etc. You also have to work on holidays but I guess that's pretty common for us too. He loves it though so to each their own.
I tried to pursue this career before I went to university due to low barriers of entry. Earning 100k (GBP) was a dream to me back then. I went to take the assessment but it was relatively hard for me at the time, and I didn't have a clue how to study back then either, and obviously failed. There were dozens of people in the assessment and a lot of older (30-40s) people there.
Not sure about the work-life balance, im sure you need to work nightshifts often and other unsociable hours. Seems pretty boring too, and surely ripe for AI disruption.
Edit; worked with a guy in finance that was from a country with mandatory 2 years conscription, they put this idiot in charge of air traffic control and at one point had to land a military jet in a commercial airport because he made a dogs breakfast of it.
You think that AI is going to disrupt this one. feels like its a place where you are going to have to have at least some human interaction.
yeah. people are talking about self flying planes next, these things pretty much fly themselves as it stands. less scope for human error in the cockpit = less humans on the ground. my 0.02$
I worked on air traffic software for a summer, there's always humans making the decisions but software tools definitely make it easier. I asked my bosses about this since I'm interested in AI and there are no plans to make it fully automated in the near future, at least in the company I worked at
Maaaan, I could do that shit with my eyes closed
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