jcr737,
The first week is all corporate induction and is dead set boring. If you've ever worked for a big company, it's same old, same old, but stretched out for a week.
Make the most of it, because then you get to week two.
On the first day you get examined on the pre-study stuff you've been stressing out about for the past few weeks, assuming you got the thumb-drive in time for you to even have a look at it. Then you get stuck into the theory. Then you can forget about having a break, not even on the weekends, because you'll be studying for at least one exam during each upcoming week, possibly two.
After two or three months of that, you're just hanging out to get into the sims to get away from the theory. A couple of weeks into the sims you're wishing you were back doing theory...
But seriously, if you put in the hard work and you have a head for what they're teaching you, you'll get through the theory. A very high percentage of my intake have university backgrounds and/or are pilots so the theory was not too bad. A lot of the subjects rely on you rote learning stuff to pass the exams, but there's also subjects that just rely on you understanding how things work, principles of flight and meteorology for example.
Once you get past the theory, after two or three months, depending on your stream, that's when you find out if you're actually cut out for the job, you start in the sims.
Imagine downloading a new computer game. You just start to get the hang of what key does what, etc, then the next day you go to play it and you find easy mode is blocked and you can only play intermediate mode. That's what the pace is like, at least on the tower stream.
As I said, a lot of people when they get into the sims, wish they were back doing theory.
The training is damned hard, way harder than the science degree I finished last year. Depending on when you start, don't expect a decent break until Christmas comes up,
if it comes up during your training. At least in the military they get a break half way through their recruit course.
Don't get me wrong, a lot of my course mates are doing really well, but everyone of us has found it really hard. No-one will just breeze through it. Some people will slip through the selection process that are just not suited to the job as well.
I don't know a controller that doesn't reckon it's the best job in aviation, despite what they might say about the management.
Just make sure you go in with your eyes open, especially if, like me, you have to spend a lot of money to relocate for the job. As a trainee you're the absolute bottom of the food chain as far as Airservice sare concerned, despite the fact that controllers are core business. You'll get the best support ever from your instructors and local managers, but apart from that you're just another annoying expense to the bean counters in Canberra. If you have to relocate to Melbourne they'll pay you fuel expenses and put you up in the Quest at Flemington for a week. The ARFF trainees not only get their accommodation paid for during their training, they get free transport to and from work while they're down here.
Anyway, <rant off>. I'm not trying to put you off applying, just giving you an idea of what it's like realistically as a trainee. Also trying to say to those that have followed this thread for a while and were unsuccessful last time they tried to get in, maybe it was for the best
