To be or not to be...an ATCO
I've seen a lot of posts in the archives here where people essentially ask "Should I be an ATCO?"
I don't think that's really a question other people can answer for you - you have to do the hard decision making yourself and that's what I'm currently attempting to do. Problem is...I think I need some more information and experienced points of view to help me with this. There's a lot of great stuff in the archives but there are still some areas that I have questions about.
First of all, just in general, I'm having difficulty finding much of a downsides/negatives viewpoint on the job. Now, that may well be because it's a genuinely great career with very few drawbacks - or that at least the people who end up validating and being successful in it are those who really love it - and if so that's fair enough. But I'm just a little bit wary of taking the perspective of NATS themselves through their website, and a lot of the wannabes on here who are young and inexperienced in the world of work, at face value.
At 27, with a few years of full-time work experience, I'm cynical enough not to trust everything that's presented in the brochure, if you know what I mean. What are some of the things NATS might not tell me about the job or its future prospects for change/development that I might nevertheless need to know? What are the major ATCO gripes and sources of discontent? For those who've had a long career in ATC, would you do it again if you were leaving school/university today? And if anyone's left ATC or wants to leave, what are your reasons?
I'm not looking to be talked out of applying here, I'm just looking for another perspective to balance the shiny, happy recruitment spin. I don't like to get into things without both eyes open.
I suppose my main concerns about it are:
1. That once the initial novelty of talking to pilots/directing aircraft (for an aviation enthusiast) wore off, the prospect of spending a working career sat at a radar screen, with the intense concentration required, might start to seem like a drudge.
2. That the shift patterns - specifically the night working - might take a heavy toll on me. I have a very easily upset body clock and find it very hard to sleep in unusual environments or at unusual times, and being sleep deprived makes me very depressed.
3. That the sort of general trend towards cost cutting and bottom-line thinking in the aviation industry generally (if not specifically in ATC), as well as new technologies, in the long-term acts to drive down T&Cs for ATCOs and heaps more stress and responsibility on their shoulders.
4. That if I do end up unhappy in the job ten years down the line, it would be difficult to get into anything else because of the narrow, specialist skillset and lack of office-type experience.
I think part of what makes this such a hard path to decide on is the commitment it requires. You can't try out being an ATCO for six months then just do something else. It requires a big sacrifice of time and effort from you, and from NATS, to get into it...and I don't want to waste my own time or theirs.
So thanks in advance for any light (or dark) you can shine.