Looking for a new career that pays 150k+? GTFIH (HIRING!!)

CW_1991

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Air traffic controllers are basically what dispatchers are to truck drivers right?
 

jaydawg08

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No just 1 misdemeanor
Depending on the misdemeanor you might still be able to get through. you'd have to talk with someone tho, and they'd just ask you questions about your past. I had a BUNCH of tickets that I needed to talk to someone about, but in the end they recognized that it was in the past when I was young.

Same could be for you
 

jaydawg08

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Air traffic controllers are basically what dispatchers are to truck drivers right?
In a way.. lil bit more complicated which is why they pay $$$ more

I'll say this, only because this week was the busiest I've seen it all year.... This job ain't for everyone. and when I say that I mean the LEARNING part isn't. It's easy to do something that you've seen over and over again for years, but the "stressful" part of this job is seeing something that you aren't used to or haven't seen in a long time. Sometimes people can freeze up, or be overwhelmed with the LEARNING part. People want to get paid 160k+ and not have any growing pains with their job, or just go into it and know everything. But half the fun is seeing the progress you've made from stepping in, not knowing anything about this career and then being able to tell planes and pilots what to do because you're confident in what you know.

An example from this week would be this.. When you watch the movie "Top Gun" and they fly all around and do their thing, they need the airspace required to do all these maneuvers and to train. These fighters can sometimes occupy LARGE amounts of airspace (all over the country) that go up to FL500+ and make it so regular commercial airliners that carry every day people like you and me to our destination very difficult and have to go around all this pre coordinated airspace.

With less airspace that means more focus and less "room" for people to fly through. This means there is sort of a "traffic jam" of people trying to get to one place to another..... add in weather like thunderstorms, or turbulence, or icing (because the higher you go in the air.. the colder it is and it can mess with the plane depending on what you're flying) and it can get busy. This can be stressful because you decisions that need to be made quickly, and not all of them are the exact cookie cutter same. Sometimes they are different. For some people this can be fun in a way. Solving a problem that you know the answer to... it's on the tip of your tongue... but you gotta just go through the process and chip away one problem at a time until it's all gone.

An issue people don't really talk about... is the problem new people have with HEARING pilots talk on the radio. It can be jarring, but you get over it pretty quickly. Everywhere around the country you are changing planes from one radio frequency coverage, to another. That means a plane is talking to ATC on 123.45 for 15-20 miles, then has to change frequencies to 124.56. This plane only can hear other planes on THAT specific radio frequency. If you're on 123.45..... you can only hear other people on 123.45....... For ATC, sometimes we COMBINE these frequencies so we can hear people on 123.45, then on 124.56, then people on 125.67 because we "own" that airspace and we can talk to someone on one side of the state, then talk to someone on the completely OTHER side of the state with no issues.

Not every plane understands that we are broadcasting and listening to MULTIPLE frequencies all at the same time.. so sometimes you get planes that, to them there is complete silence and no one is talking or saying anything so they ask "Hey Center. I have a request, can I climb I'm running into some light chop here at my altitude and it's getting bumpy.".... Meanwhile on the OTHER frequencies that we're monitoring we have 15 other planes that are also asking for something, someone is requesting a clearance off the ground, someone is changing their destination airport, someone is having Alternator problems and they are going to need to find the closest "big airport" in order to get a belt, someone is asking for a shortcut to their destination on an arrival route, a foreign "student pilot" is asking for something you can't make out, someone is flying VFR but wants to get flight following so they know if anyone else is in front of them or around them.... THIS is the part that makes it difficult to learn because occasionally it can be a garbled mess

However, you learn very quickly what to listen to. You catch certain words, you get used to the same sort of situations, you see planes climbing on a hot day and that they will have problems climbing "quickly" so they may be traffic for other planes. These all sound difficult and hard to do.. but this is why you have TONS of practice, tons of lab time, tons of hours of people sitting behind you, then next to you to help you decide certain things until eventually it's as easy and fast as some mundane IT help desk assignment.

I think sometimes as black men we sell ourselves short.. and think because of where we came from we aren't smart enough for something like this. Or it's too hard to do, or too stressful. I'm just here to let anyone know reading this that wants to apply... I came into this career from the bottom. My pops was an abusive alcoholic who committed suicide and left me to be homeless for a large part of my late teens to early -20's. I was sleeping in friends closets for the better part of year cause I had no where else to go but there and sleep in my car. Prior to this I never made more than 50k a year and that 50k was a BLESSING from God from where I came from. I had no prior experience, no prior knowledge, no one telling me what to expect, and I continued fighting and pushing because I wanted better for myself. If I can make it.. you can too
 

Mafioso

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How long you got left?
I just started, I got 3 semesters left to get my associates at my local CC. Then I’m gonna get my BSN online while I start working as an RN and hope that the hospital I work at helps to cover my tuition breh
 

Womb Raider

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I just started, I got 3 semesters left to get my associates at my local CC. Then I’m gonna get my BSN online while I start working as an RN and hope that the hospital I work at helps to cover my tuition breh
Im in my last semester but I have the same gameplan
 

jaydawg08

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Bumping this cause this is the last day (I believe) you can apply. Get that $$!! After a few years get to basically work 4 hrs a day (rest of your shift is breaks), and get paid $150k+ if you at a center!!
 

jaydawg08

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I got the email today to schedule the exam :blessed:
Ayy good luck to you brah. If it's the same test as I took, don't overthink it. Just go in and go in and choose answers with your gut instinct.

Gotta be in that "Well Qualified" test range and overthinking the test will fuk you up
 
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