<p>We know the colleges. What we are looking for is someone who has a relative or knows someone who does this for a living and can tell us how stressful, how much income (as an apprentice too), hours, and again, how stressful. And not third hand, like, "I know that is a stressful job". Would prefer if we hear from someone who has more firsthand knowledge and knows someone who does this.
Thank you very much people!</p>
<p>You do NOT need a college degree to be an Air Traffic Controller. The money you spend on any preparatory program is a stupid waste. The FAA hires on "potential" (and allot of AA). Someone coming out of the military with ATC experience will have a big leg up but will go through the same training. If you pass the written test and the interview you will go to the FAA Academy on OKC for 6 or 8 months. They make it a practice to wash out 50% of every class, no matter how good or bad that class may be. If you get there, pray you're in a weak class. </p>
<p>And remember, there is a BIG difference between Terminal and In-route controllers. Snivelers (Dungeon folk) are jealous because they cant get transfered to a tower.</p>
<p>Very interesting. Elimination tests. That's okay, many fields have elimination tests. I guess that is why it is so good to have the right perspective- if one door closes, another opens, somewhere. We can cope with that. Thank you- hope more will respond too.</p>
<p>My sister is a controller - has been doing it for almost 18 years. She had some college, hadn't finished, and got into the FAA training program (probably right around the time that Reagan had fired all the controllers after they went on strike - don't know if anybody remembers that - along the same line, a lot of the current controllers were hired right around that same time, so a lot of them are about ready to retire). The stress isn't overwhelming, and she makes fairly good money, especially since she is not in a large metro area.</p>
<p>Nieghbor is an ATC at a nearby airport. US Airways used to fly out of here, but discontinued service about a year ago. Now it's strickly private, although he tells me that private was always their money maker anyway. He did go to college but got ATC training in the military. It must pay fairly well, even at our tiny airport, because his wife is a part time secretary. He often has to work strange shifts ; has never complained about stress ; seems like a really easy going person that doesn't stress over things. I don't know what the demand for ATCs is because our son (Marines) was interested in training for that field & there were no openings.</p>