What are my wife's chances?

[CesnaCaptn]

My wife is applying during the open window for off the street hiring.

She has only about 1 year of college credit, a commercial pilot license (350 hours), and steady career progression including retail sales management.

 

[atl pilot]

Who knows what HR will do. They are very unpredictable. However, I spoke with a lady out in HR in OKC last week. She said that they will begin to contact all qualified (based upon the bid - 3 years college, 4 years work exp, or a combination of both) candidates after the bid closes on Feb 15th (I don't imagine this will happen fast - it never does). Then the candidates will be given a place and time where they can take the AT-SAT. After that interviews will be offered based upon test scores, so its in her best interest to do well. I am told that a lot of the CTIs (college training initiative folks) are simply not showing up for their class dates at the academy....who knows how that will help motivate HR. At my facility we have been consistantly working 6-day work weeks for almost 2 years (you know some of the voluntary OT the FAA talks about - yeah right more like double-super secret mandatory).
Tell her to go make an appointment with your local air traffic managers and visit some of the ATC facilities in your area - don't limit yourself to just one.....make all contacts now, and follow up on them. These will probably be the same folks she'll have to interview with, and they can help the process if they like her.
Best wishes to her. What city do you live in?

 

[CesnaCaptn]

Is there any way to prepare for the AT-SAT? How much notice will she get if she is chosen to test?

 

[atl pilot]

Is there any way to prepare for the AT-SAT? How much notice will she get if she is chosen to test?

On the ATC CTI website there is some info. Its been a really long time (many decades since I took the test and do not know if its even remotely the same. I did notice someone had posted a study guide at one point and there is a book at Amazon that some talks about in one of the threads on that site that may help.

 

[BOHICAgain]

Tell her to go make an appointment with your local air traffic managers and visit some of the ATC facilities in your area - don't limit yourself to just one.....make all contacts now, and follow up on them. These will probably be the same folks she'll have to interview with, and they can help the process if they like her.
Best wishes to her. What city do you live in?

My wife is currently a 911 dispatcher but is really thinking about becoming a controller. Who do you recommend she contact about visiting. We live in FLL so a drive to MIA Center is no problem.

Also what is the deal with off the street hiring. She is looking into CTI schools but were can I get info for off the street

 

[atl pilot]

The off-the-street bid closes on Feb 15th. The link to th exact bid is http://jobs.faa.gov/asap_detail.asp?vac_id=102077.


Other info on the jobs and its requirements can be found on the FAA website at http://www.faa.gov/jobs/job_opportunities/airtraffic_controllers/.

 

[atl pilot]

I tried to find a link where you could search for FAA Facility Mangers names and phone numbers. However, on the public site, it doesn't offer this (or I am just not seeing it like I did at work). The best advice I can make is locate the numbers through whatever means are available (AirNav, Flight Service, etc.) and call and ask who the air traffic manager is. Then make some appointments to visit the different facilities in your area - do not limit yourselves, loook around, all facilities are hurting or will be soon! Dress nice and be professional....and tell them why you are visiting. When you talk to the controllers, they will most likely be very discouraging. This is because the FAA voided our very lucrative contact last year and has had us all working under imposed work rules. These rules are not really all that bad in comparision to other businesses. Just remember that we simply do not have many of the pay and liberties that we used to, so many folks are sore about it. This has been a GREAT career for me now for 20+ years! I would encourage anyone interested to submit for the bid offering and give it a wag. Just keep it all inperspective and make your own decisons, do not let other people influence you before you have a chance to try!

Here's another tidbit:
controllers can retire after 25 years of service at any age, or after 20 years of service if you're 50 or older. You must retire at 56. This comes with a government very nice sized pension (dependent on your # of years of service) and a 401K with excellent govt matching (we call it TSP - thrift savings plan) at the end.

I will be able to retire at 48 with a full govt pension and will still be making more than most of your early year captains (at the regionals) just off my pension portion.

Just another good reason to consider this avenue!

 

[XSWANN@240]

Beware...

I heard from a reliable source within the NYC FAA ATCS region. That developments (new hires) are washing out in an alarming rate due poor training in OK City and placement in high traffic and complexity facilities. Applicants off the street with no prior experience or ATC schooling such as CTI programs are in an extreme disadvantage.

It's a great career with outstanding benefits for the ones that can "cut the mustard".

good luck...

 

[psysicx]

Does anybody know if/when they will have another off the street hiring window?

 

[atl pilot]

This was the first one in 15 years. I called OKC and they said they don't know when another one will come out, if at all, at this time.

 

[Nevets]

Here's another tidbit:
controllers can retire after 25 years of service at any age, or after 20 years of service if you're 50 or older. You must retire at 56. This comes with a government very nice sized pension (dependent on your # of years of service) and a 401K with excellent govt matching (we call it TSP - thrift savings plan) at the end.

I will be able to retire at 48 with a full govt pension and will still be making more than most of your early year captains (at the regionals) just off my pension portion.

Just another good reason to consider this avenue!

Also, just to add, you can retire at the minimum retirement age + 30 years and have all your ATC years computed at 1.7% for your annuity/pension! And the mandatory retirement age isn't so mandatory. You can request a waiver or try to get promoted to a second level supervisor before reaching 56.

 

[atl pilot]

Actually, to figure out retirement pay for an Controller who retires under the current (FERS) system, you must figure out what the average is of your highest consecutive 3-years of pay was. Then you get 1.7% (of that average figure) for the first 20 years (34%), plus an additional 1% for every year after that. So if you serve for 25 years and retire at age 48 (like I will), and if the average pay of your highest 3 consecutive years of pay was $100,000, you would get a pension of $39,000 per year. Plus you get a social security supplement from the FAA, from the point at which your retire until you turn age 62, when your SS actually kicks in. That works out to roughly 75% (just for estimations sake) of whatever the SS would be (on that statement you get every year near your b-day). At ATC-12 level, that works out to roughly another $10K per year for the supplement portion. So, roughly a pension of $49,000 per year.
Also you can put into the TSP (Thrift Savings Plan - the govts version of a 401K). The FAA has great matching - look at my post under ATC benefits for more exact details.