Oh look, an update!

I (obviously) haven't updated this much since my interview a handful of months ago, namely for the fact that there hasn't been a reason to update. Aside from some minor progress, things are still where they were months ago: waiting for a class date.

However on August 5th I did go down to Atlanta for the day to complete some necessary steps of the application process. Drug test, psychological exam, physical, and security checks.

I found out last week that everything has come back positive. All my clearances and tests have passed, and I'm now good to go. Now, as before it's all about waiting for a class date in Oklahoma City. As for when that will happen, HR does not have a definite answer for me. It could happen two weeks from now, or it could start four months from now.

I have been down to visit Houston recently. Took an extended weekend down to Houston late last month to do some apartment looking, weeding out a list of neighborhoods to live in, and most importantly taking a tour of Houston Center.

Overwhelming is the word I'd use to describe the first impression. It was a similar tour to when I interviewed in Aurora and toured Chicago Center.

First off, here's the airspace that we deal with at Houston Center (ZHU):


The heavy white line is the actual airspace we operate within. Each light white line is the boundary of the different sectors within our airspace. One humorous thing while taking the tour, is those air traffic controllers who operate in the New Orleans sector have their little area and radar screens decorated with Mardi Gras beans.

In addition to the whole overwhelming feeling, there's tons things that need to be memorized. Airport codes, airplanes, sector maps, a bajillion acronyms, etc etc.

All in all, I'm looking forward to it. I need to put in a shit ton of work, but they payoff in the end will be well worth it. Luckily there's an insane amount of training for a career like this. Four months of training in Oklahoma City. Then once I get to Houston I'll be in a classroom setting for another four months or so. After classroom training we move to simulators. Couple more months of training behind the simulators, going over every possibly scenario known to man. Then we actually get to get behind a real radar scope and talk to all the metal in the sky. However this starts a year of on the job training. During this time certified controllers are at our side, correcting us if our phraseology is off or wrong. Once that year is up we are officially certified and we can be on our own. Though like any job, that's not to say nobody is watching, or listening.

Still a long way to go, but once school starts and once I move it'll all fly by, and if all goes according to plan I don't end up washing out. Then I'd be fucked.

The interview

Well today was the day; the day I have been eagerly anticipating for the past 11 months: Interview Day. It was one of the most relaxed and casual interviews I have ever had the pleasure of being a part of.

Luckily I had joined an air traffic control message board a while ago, and some kind people had remembered and wrote down what questions are on the interview, so I had a bit of inside knowledge as to what to expect. Questions follow:

1) Tell me about yourself.

2) How did you prepare for this interview.

3) Remember a time at work or school where you were working as a team with a group of people and you were under a stressful situation that your team handled well. How did the outcome of this situation affect you personally and how did it affect the group What did you do to come to a positive outcome, and what did you contribute personally.

4) Same question but where you didn't succeed.

5) Same question but a time where you personally where only involved in the stressful situation and not with a group and you succeeded.

6) Same question but where you personally didn't succeed.

7) Do you have any ATC experience outside of CTI school. (actual controller experience)

8) Why do you want to be an ATC.

9) What qualities do you have that would make you a good ATC.

10) Where do you see your career going in ATC.

11) How did you become interested in ATC.

12) How do you feel about shift work.

13) Is there anything else you'd like us to know.

14) Do you have any coping mechanisms.

Most of them are your standard interview questions, and 95% of these I was asked in pretty much the same exact wording as seen above.

After the interview I took a tour of ZAU (Aurora Center), and everybody I met, talked to, and shook hands with was extremely friendly and happy to answer any questions and explain what they were doing at the moment. I even got to "plug in" and listen to an ATC talk to some planes up above. Luckily ZAU is the exact type of facility ZHU (Houston Center) is, so what I saw here today is what I can expect when I get down to my facility in Houston, ZHU.

At the end I was told I "passed" the interview portion, as it's a bit of a pass/fail or yes/no type of interview. You either go on to the next step or you get a "thanks for your time, but this isn't for you." So on to the next step for me, which is a physical, drug test, and a psychological exam. Provided all those go well, I will receive a Tentative Offer Letter (TOL). After that, some more forms, and sercurity clearances and background checks to go through. Provided those go well, I receive my Final Offer Letter (FOL). Then off to Oklahoma City for 3 months of training, and shortly upon completion, off to ZHU.

Unfortunately there is no cold hard date as to when I go to OKC. Anywhere from 3-8 months it seems. Thus, more waiting...

Interview

Got the call today. I am set up for an interview on Thursday at 11:00am. Can't wait. Though this can be perceived as a "wheels are in motion" type of thing, it's only a little slip of the cog actually.

Interview, then (in some order) drug test, physical, psych exam. After that, I receive a TOL (Tentative Offer Letter). Then more waiting until security clearances, credit checks, background checks all go through. Eventually a FOL (Final Offer Letter).

Why?

When the eventual time for an interview comes, one of the questions that will come up will be "Why do you want to be an air traffic controller?"

Those of you that read this...(nobody...heh)...probably have wondered the same thing. So here goes:

When I was younger, I always loved, when flying, listening in on the air-to-ground communications. I never knew what the jargon meant, but I found it fascinating. I always thought that whatever it was would be kind of neat to do as a job. The whole suit and tie, 9-5 job really isn't for me; hence the previous job as a photographer for the news. Something most people don't think about, and the behind the scenes unsung hero of day to day life. Without a photog photoging you wouldn't have the news. Without the ATC talking to those pilots, you'd have a lot of planes crashing into one another.

It's something where not everyday is the same. You always have to be constantly thinking in a variety of spatial directions. Vertical distance between planes....horizontal distance between planes....speed up....slow down....ascend....descend....turn left.....turn right. Just frantic, nonstop work.

Sure it's stressful, but that's not really a problem for me. It's something technical, constantly changing, and something that most of all makes me want to go to work everyday, and come home being proud of what I do.

So something to that effect is what I'd say come interview time. I suppose it was kind of a fall-back, but hey who gives a fuck right? Plus the fact that it pays extremely well and mandatory early retirement + good pension is a bonus. Well and that it's a very steady job in an unsteady job market and economy.

Houston

All along I've known that at some point I'd have the opportunity to choose a state where I would want to live. As much as I love Chicago, I decided that for a variety of reasons that moving would be a good opportunity for me. So when it came time to choosing my two states where I'd want to live I had to look at all the options. I always thought I'd enjoy Nashville, but with this process, you can only put what state you'd prefer, not the actual city; so I had to look at other cities as viable options. Memphis is a shithole, so I ruled out Tennessee. So I decided to put Texas and Arizona as my two choices when it was time to send in my geographical preferences e-mail.

I really wanted to be selected for Austin, which I knew was a longshot all along, and pretty much one of the main reasons I put down Texas. Though looking at the whole state I wouldn't be too discouraged if I would get somewhere like Dallas, San Antonio or Houston. Ultimately I was selected for Houston.

I was immediately dejected. Despite having family in the Houston area, I like most people thought of the city as a huge sprawling, humid city with not much character.

It is sprawling and humid, but after doing some research on the city I'm actually really excited to be moving there. It doesn't have the character Chicago, NY or even a Seattle has, but that's okay. There seems to be some nice neighborhoods near downtown that I could live; which wouldn't be too far from where I would be working. There's a big museum campus and quite a bit of culture down there. It's less than an hour from the Gulf of Mexico, so beaches and the ocean are close, which is nice. Cold winters will be a thing of the past as well.

Plus being a big city there's major sports teams there. I'll always be a fan of the Chicago teams, but if I ever want to catch a Astros game or something like that, I can actually see some games with decent talent.

The more I read and the more I look into the diversity of the city, the more I look forward to eventually moving down there.

Luck?

In order to ease my pain throughout this whole process, I've tracked down and joined a couple ATC oriented message boards. So I'm able to see when people are getting contacted during the various steps along the process, and actually talk and get to know some of my future co-workers (provided all goes according to plan that is...).

Checking out the message board today, it appears I have dodged a bullet. There's been a lot of people that have been rejected for the ATC gig who have made it to the same step in the process as me. Lots of people that applied during PUBNAT 5, which is what I did, have received notice that they have not been accepted. Again, there is not a whole lot of rhyme or reason to any of this process, and why some get selected and others don't, so I'm just feeling a bit better about the whole situation today. Though I would still like to receive my interview e-mail this week.

For those of you that aren't sure what an air traffic controller does, or what the exact function of an air traffic controller is, I refer you to the ever hand Wikipedia. They can describe it much better than I can.

Air Traffic Control

and what "subcategory" within the whole ATC umbrella that I will specifically be doing

Area Control Center / Center

Good and Bad

To condense the previous post, here's a little timeline of the whole application process up to today:

07/31/2008 Applied for PUBNAT5
12/02/2009 Email received to set test date for ATSAT in Chicago
01/17/2009 Took ATSAT in Chicago
01/21/2009 ATSAT score received: 87.5 Well Qualified
03/27/2009 Received and submitted GEO Pref Email (TX and AZ)
05/19/2009 Received e-mail notifying me I have been chosen for further consideration for Houston Center.

Upon receiving the e-mail on 05/19, I replied back accepting their offer. I waited to hear when exactly the week of June 22nd my PEPC (interview, physical, psych exam) would be.

Now here's where the good and bad news comes in: I did not hear back Wednesday the 20th, whereas others in my position had and received conformation of PEPC on the 22nd or 23rd of June. I heard back today that all PEPC slots were filled, and now instead of getting everything done in one eight hour day, I have to go the "traditional route."

I will be contacted some time in the next few weeks to schedule an interview. Depending on how that goes, I have to wait some more, get clearance and then continue on to the next steps. So it's good that I haven't fallen through the cracks, and still am on pace to interview, but a bit bad that I'm not doing the "all in one day" PEPC route.

To say the least, this whole process has been slow and frustrating. I have no idea when e-mails are coming, when interviews are being scheduled, and when I will ultimately be going to the FAA academy in OKC (Oklahoma City).

Welcome

Welcome to Alpha Tango Charlie. Why Alpha Tango Charlie? Well that's the NATO phonetic alphabet pronunciation for ATC or air traffic control, which is what this blog will be about. Basically an agonizingly slow update of getting hired as an air traffic controller, general air traffic control news/musings/etc, and as time goes on, updates during the FAA academy and my eventual "home base" in Houston.

Though I'm jumping ahead of myself. Most of you probably aren't familiar with air traffic control or what an air traffic controller does, or why I decided to apply for this position. Forgive me for the long rambling which is to follow. This isn't going to be the fanciest blog out on the interweb, as I know basically next to nothing about HTML editing or the like, so a standard blogger/blogspot will be my layout, and the rudimentary in-browser editing/posting tools at my disposal will be my means of updating. So bear with me.

To start with, I actually applied to this as a "lets just apply to this and see what happens" type of thing. I applied, and then the economy went in the shitter, so I figured I would stick it out, seeing as when/if I eventually get hired it would be nice to have a very steady, very well paying job.

I applied during an open PUBNAT, which stands for PUBlic-NATional announcement. PUBNATs are usually open for a month, which allows somebody OTS (Off the Street) to apply for a position. My PUBNAT closed on 7/31/08.

I did not hear back from the FAA until Deceumber of 2008, informing me I had been selected to take the AT-SAT, basically a pre-employment exam. I took that on January 17, 2009. I received my results on January 21 stating I passed the test, and I was "Well Qualified" as opposed to just "Qualified."

After that, I did not hear anything until March 27, when I received my Geographical Preferences e-mail, basically asking, "tell us your two states you wouldn't mind working." So I put down Texas and Arizona. For reasons I will go into at a later time.

Again I waited, until last week on May 19th, I was informed that I had been chosen for further consideration for an Air Traffic Control Specialist (ATCS) position at the Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) in Houston, TX.

So now I wait some more. My interview/physical/psychological exam is scheduled for the week of June 22nd in Chicago (Des Plaines actually). However I am waiting on an e-mail informing me exactly what day the week of the 22nd, and what time.

It's been almost 11 months since I applied and I haven't even interviewed yet. In the future, in addition to further clarifing why I decided to leave the wonderful Chicago area, I will also further clarify why I applied to one of the most stressful jobs in the world, and what exactly an air traffic controller does, and the different aspects of the job.

My primary objective is to remain with the ATC topic at hand, but most of you that know me know that I love my music, so occasionally I will stray off topic to gush about some band or album that has me captivated at the moment.

Again, forgive the rather long and disjointed first entry. I will break things down as time goes on, and try to make some things clear. Please feel free to comment!