This is the story of how I became an air traffic controller: Ever since I can remember, I've been obsessed with aviation. Fortunately, I lived outside of LAX international airport and got to see the airplanes take off and land each day of my life. I never will forget being able to look out my bedroom window growing up to hear and see flight in action. I was hooked from the start.As I became more interested in aviation as a career, I started to look into different professions that I could get involved in. The first opportunity I considered was pilot.
The stereotypical pilot is good looking and always meeting up with morally questionable women in random cities throughout the nation. Although I wasn't all that good looking, I still thought I would like to get a job as a pilot. Fortunately, I decided not to do that about 2 years into college. My reasons why are listed below.
As I was in college there was a huge shift that occurred in the aviation industry. Basically pilots started getting paid a lot less. Some pilots didn't even make $30,000 per year as a starting salary. That's pretty bad considering many pilots leave school over $100,000 in debt due to the expensive cost of training. I didn't want to go down that road so I switched majors.
The next major I attempted was airport management. This made a little more sense because typically managers get paid more than regular employees in just about every situation. However, after changing majors to management, I realized that these jobs were extremely competitive. While I'm a big believer in following ones dreams, I'm an even bigger believer in hedging ones bets. So instead of getting into management, I switched my focus to air traffic control. I'm very glad I made that decision.
My Path To Becoming an Air Traffic Controller
One of the best places to start getting information about air traffic control is by visiting the Federal Aviation Administration's website. Here, you'll find a lot of great information about getting qualified as an air traffic controller. There's even a good video on this page explaining what it's really like to be an ATC professional. The second website I recommend is a place called ATCTrainer.com.
I ended up following a very similar path to becoming an ATC guy as listed in the video above. I hope you've enjoyed this explanation of how I discovered this career. I've enjoy my life as an air traffic controller because I like the challenge. If you like challenges and airplanes this could be the right career for you as well.
