apparently they're so desperate for air traffic controllers, they've removed the requirement that one have a college degree. you didn't have to have one in aviation or anything, i believe it just had to be a 4 year (maybe 2 year ) degree, which would still look good to have compared to other applicants. but the reason i tell totse this is i think this is the most secure, well paying, non labor intensive job that exists in the US for people without college degrees. i have two uncles and an aunt who do this and they live pretty comfortably. the starting pay is only like $18,000, but it goes up quickly and within a few years you'd be making around $100,000/yr. you have to be under 31 to begin, and then you can retire after 20 years. my uncle retired last year, at 49. he was probably making $150,000 then.

once you're accepted, the FAA will send you to oklahoma city to go to their academy for 12 weeks or something, and then assign you to an air traffic control station. my aunt and uncles don't work at an airport, there's a big ass regional center in our area. it's kind of tempting for me actually, seeing as how i'm going into my second year of college and i still don't know wtf i want to do with my life. but it feels like a waste of money and time to quit school now. plus, even to be an air traffic controller, it'd look good to have a degree.

so yeah, you guys might want to look into this.

if you fuck up though they get really pissed and have you re educated in air traffic control. but otherwise the job pays well, and you get to move around the country when traffic controllers are needed elsewhere.

Except its one of the most stressful jobs you can have. Each day you hold the lives of thousands of people in your hands...

Sure it may seem good now, ad it might be. But if a big storm hits somewhere, and planes start diverting to your airport, you not only need to keep track of the planes assigned to you, but it can be EXTREMELY hard to moniter all your planes on that little radar thing. As more fly in you need to coordinate with the other trafic guys to determine which to land first, taking into account the fuel they have left, any emergencies, the severity of storms and where they are headed, and so on and so on. On a regular day expect to deal with about 20 planes at one time. Which might not be so bad. Its the bad weather which you need to worry about, cause if they start diverting to you (and god help you if your in a major airport) you will need to keep track of upwards of 40 planes at a time. Even more. (Yeah they try to space it out so every trafic controler has an equal number of planes, but as they keep coming in it gets backed up and you need to deal with more)

if your great under stress, than go for it.

well as i said, you don't have to work at an airport. there are also centers that just monitor air traffic for entire regions of the US, and employ like hundreds of people. i've heard it can be stressful as well, but i think they only have like a 35 hour work week, or maybe they work longer shifts and get 3 days off or something. i forget.

beats being a poor loser.

Easy?


http://www.zanorg.com/prodperso/jeux.../doublejeu.htm


Lets see how good you are at doing two things at once.

Beat 30 seconds and prove it.

1. that game has very little if anything to do with being an air traffic controller.

2. did you miss the part about the 12 weeks of training academy? they don't expect you to just go in there and start working.

3. my aunt and two uncles that do this are not fucking geniuses or some kind of gifted people. they're just average joe smos that fell into a good job back in the 80s when the government started hiring air traffic controllers like crazy after reagan fired most of them. well now they're hiring again because a lot of those people are retiring now.

as far as stress, my relatives don't look like they've aged beyond their years or anything, they actually look pretty good for their age. and they can and do relieve stress by traveling all over the world with all the money they make combined (and not having kids, heh).

68.71

http://defaultsite.googlepages.com/nocheat.GIF