Do you love your job?

[Ollz]

Hey, I'm in my 2nd year at college and am hoping to apply as an ATC. My Dad thinks I should get a degree in law first and then apply because he says being an ATC will probably wear me out and I'll hate the hours, and at least his way I'll have something to fall back on. Personally I think the hours sound good, but of course I've never worked shift work, so I was just hoping for some input about general job satisfaction and tiredness levels. There's only so much I can ascertain myself without experience.

Thanks a bunch,
Oli

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

I did it for 35+ years and loved every second of it. Shift work is a doddle once you get used to it..... and you get so much time off people will think you're unemployed (as happened to a colleague of mine at Heathrow).

[ATCO1962]

If you love aviation, then ATC is for you. I've been going for 27 years now and I've never had a day that I didn't want to go to work. In the early days, some of the personalities were a little....stunted, shall we say?...but those days are, for the most part, gone.

If you don't love aviation, don't waste your (and your trainer's) time.

Good luck.

[ATCbabe]

Hi Oli,


Your dad is right. Always have a back up plan because just getting accepted into the college is difficult and the course failure rate is (or was when I was there!!!) high.

If you are lucky enough to get through it all then the real life job is great, one of the best as far as job satisfaction is concerned. However there are a few downsides, the biggest being the shifts.

It's alright now thinking the hours sound ok and indeed it means you can avoid Tesco shopping on saturdays:ok: go to the bank during the week:ok: , wait in for deliveries etc,etc which are very difficult working 9 to 5.

However you have a severly disrupted social and family life. You have plenty of time to do extra christmas present shopping to make up to your friends and family the fact that you won't be there on Christmas Day because you're working (for no extra pay!). Try exlaining to "Aunty Jane" why you can't make "Uncle Thomas's" suprise 60th birthday because she didn't give you more than 4 months notice to get leave booked! And why is it that everybody has parties on Saturdays when you only get 1 saturday off in every 3/4? Try to explain to your five year old why you have to go to work and miss their 1st school play.

Some days you come home feeling really good and others you get home absolutely exhausted both physically and mentally. Generally it is a job that you leave at work but there are times when it does affect your home time and indeed your sleep patterns.

Talking of sleep patterns... well forget about having one of those!!! Night shifts and early shifts all take their toll. I survive on about 8 hours sleep for 3 days on nights cos I find it so difficult to sleep during the day.:{

Even tho we all have difficulty sleeping and difficulties fitting family commitments round work, for most of us it's a great job which pays well and has good holiday entitlements which I doubt most of us would give up in a hurry.:)

[helimutt]

Surely you jest? One atco I know practically spends all of his time sipping Bacardi and cokes in his hot tub. Never seems to be at work, earns loads more money than me, and has no risks to take.
Just wish i'd been brainy enough to apply to be an atco myself.
Easy Life!!

What could be easier than sitting watching a glorified space invader game screen a couple of times a week? :ok:

[Standard Noise]

Nowt, money for old rope so it is.
On the whole I prefer shifts than 9-5. Yeah, so the nights aren't getting any easier as I get older but hey, I hate getting up at 7 every morning so it's a small price to pay. Never ceases to amaze me that so many of my brethren moan about shift work, I mean it's not as if it's a big secret until the day they let you escape from the college.

[Foxy Loxy]

Well, yes.

I wouldn't do it otherwise :ok: Yes there are limitations as ATC Babe described (for example, I am probably not going to get to attend the funeral of a family friend when it happens), but you get to go to the shops when everyone else is at work, and more importantly for me, the beach.

I didn't go to the trouble of getting a degree because I was going to be an ATCO no matter what. I didn't do so through NATS, but I've had a very interesting and varied career nonetheless, AND learnt an awful lot about life into the bargain.

I wouldn't have swapped it for anything.

[Chilli Monster]

It's still one of the most fun things you can do with your clothes on! :) So many people ask me whether I enjoy it, and the answer's always the same - it beats working for a living ;)

[General_Kirby]

Yes yes and yes again. I've never done a days work. Shift work is amazing, I could think of nothing worse than sharing my only two days off a week with the entire country. No more dreading monday mornings, no rush hour, enjoy whatever it is you enjoy doing, but on weekdays with far less of the general public wandering around, getting in your way and being annoying. The people in my flats must think Im DSS as Im always at home, they all leave before me and arrive home hours after me. I'm hardly ever at work, I never ever don't want to go into work which is sad but there we go. No disrepect to your dad but you need to talk to people who do the job. Having a backup plan is always a good idea though.

[NudgingSteel]

Ollz,
I assume you're still quite young, so the degree is definitely a good idea to have something to fall back on in case ATC doesn't work out.
However....ATC, at least in the UK, is tightly regulated in terms of the hours and shifts you can work, precisely to avoid fatigue. I'd doubt there are many law firms which insist you take a 30 minute break every 1.5 hours, and let you work 6 days on and then 4 days off! (Before everyone else jumps in....yes I know the first day off is a sleep day if you've done nights, but at least you can choose when to sleep and fit it round other stuff). I personally love shifts. In stark contrast to ATCbabe's comment, shift work has enabled me to be a huge part of both my children's lives as they have grown. I pity friends who work 'normal' hours who get home just in time to say goodnight to the kids for 5, or occasionally 6, days a week.
Plus you can't take your work home with you - apart from learning the bookwork and then keeping current with procedures, your job ends the moment you hand over to your colleague and walk out of the ops room. Again, you couldn't say that of many law firms!
The job satisfaction is immediate. No waiting weeks or months for project feedback etc - your decisions take immediate effect, whether good or bad. I could go on, suffice it to say that I love the job!!!
Whichever route you take, the very best of luck, let us know what you eventually decide to do.

[rodan]

Why's everyone down on shiftwork? I love it! Screw having drive to work and go shopping with everyone else!

[GetTheFlick]

Why's everyone down on shiftwork? I love it! Screw having drive to work and go shopping with everyone else!

Shopping ? Shopping !?! :)

The kid's 18. Tell him what fun it is looking for a date on Tues. night. Tuesday's no good ? How about Wednesday night ? Funny how none of the killer concerts happen on Monday night.

Get a degree kid. Shift work ain't all bad but it will kill you (slowly.) You can be a controller with a law degree. You can't be a lawyer with a controller rating.

ATC can be a good job. Used to be here in the States. Might be again one day. It never hurts to have a Plan B (or a law degree.)

Don Brown

[eglnyt]

Make sure you finish A levels because it's hard to go back and do those. It is useful to have a backup plan because the pass rate at the college isn't 100% but you can always do a law degree if it doesn't work out. If it does work out you'll earn about the same and you won't have all those student loans.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

I would echo NudgingSteel's comments regarding time with the kids. Not a day went paast in my whole career when I couldn't spend a lot of time with our sons. My brother-in-law was an accountant. Earned pots of lolly but only saw his kids at the weekend - if he wasn't busy working in his study!!

The shift system I was on gave me about 179 days off per year (that's including leave). I detested nights but several of my colleagues loved them. The result was, by careful swapping I went for 8.5 years at Heathrow without working a single night. I then worked a couple then went 2.5 years without one!! During 35 years in ATC, 31 at Heathrow and TC, I only worked one Christmas Day - my first, back in 1967!

It was a peach of a job........... now, after only 31 years service and having retired at 58 I am enjoying an excellent pension.

[Loki]

Similar sentiments to HD, except I started off not minding nights and grew to dislike them more and more after I was about 40. Great job completely unlike most you can think of.

[Hyperborean]

What can I add? I agree with all of the positive comments. I joined at 18 did almost 42 years 37 of them as an operational ATCO. I don't have the gold plated old fashioned NATS pension (I stress old fashioned as current joiners won't get the same benefits) but I'm comfortably off. I have travelled the world, which is why I don't have the full pension, and worked in some of the best locations in UK. I found shifts family friendly, my kids went to the zoo when it was less crowded. My only proviso is to say it's not for everyone, you have to like the job. If you do it's the best job in the world

[anotherthing]

General_Kirby...

You live in a flat... are you sure you're not DSS? :}

Ollz

As you can see, shift work is not for everybody - however unlike Yahoo, I find doing permanent nights a doddle.

As for all the time off - you get lots of days off, however the hours you work over a year are not much less than a normal job (but probably much less than a Lawyer would do if a partner etc).

You do not need a love of aviation, enjoying ATC as a job is not about being a spotter, but it is about enjoying doing a job that can be challenging, rewarding, and that you can walk away from at the end of each day - it just happens to be a job with those favourable attributes that is aviation orientated.

However, you cannot be complacent - becoming a qualified ATCO will be more difficult than becoming a lawyer. You need to be able to learn for both jobs, but you also need natural aptitude to do ATC.

You will also need to take some passing interest (recognition if in a tower/performance characteristics if on radar) in aircraft in order for you to succeed at the interviews, during the college, and doing your job. That does not mean you need to rush out and buy a flask and anorak though.

Good luck if you apply, but do not do it until you have at least completed your A levels, if not your degree. It's nice to have something to fall back on if you fail.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

<<however the hours you work over a year are not much less than a normal job (but probably much less than a Lawyer would do if a partner etc).
>>

Difference being that we worked a max of 1.5 hours at a time whilst a lawyer is probably strapped to his seat all day.

Some years ago the following conversation took place in our house with a neighbour who had dropped in for coffee:

She: "Oh! I see you're home again"
Me: "'fraid so; I've done my 20 hours this week"
She: "My husband worked 80 hours last week, but of course he has a very good job"
Me: "He hasn't got a job; he's living in purgatory!"

[Standard Noise]

General Kirby - I can go one better than that, moved into a new house the week before my first validation, then bought myself a sporty motor to celebrate passing. Combined with no one knowing what I did for a living, coming and going all hours of the day and night and friends dropping round often, I found out that the neighbours thought I was a drug dealer!
Mystery was kept up because I told no one what I did but only because I moved into an area where they all hated the airport.

[ATCO1962]

While it's true that you don't need a love of aviation, and that is increasingly obvious in the newer generation of ATCOs ( many of whom, it must be said, are worthy artisans of our trade), it's a pleasure sitting next to a knowledgable and enthusiastic ATCO who loves everything to do about aviation. If an ATCO is an aviation enthusiast, chances are, they are learning new things every day and are better able to exercise their duties as knowledgable controller. Just as in the case of a heart surgeon, you want one who really knows their craft, not just one who's functional and passed a rating.

[Loki]

Standard noise

I knew someone who used to wind his neighbours up by either ostentatiously loading a set of golf clubs into the car before setting off for work, or shouting "if anyone wants me, I`ll be at my club" to his wife.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Slightly OT, sorry.. There was a magic story in the GATCO Bulletin about 40 years ago.. At some small US airport one of the ATCOs got the enquiry desk to make a public announcement along the lines: "Will Mr Brown please take a call from Raquel Welch on line 1". So ATCO-man strides into the departure lounge which was full of people, grabs a phone and in a stage whisper says: "Raquel, baby, I told you not to call me at work". With everybody staring at him he calmly put the phone down and went through the adjacent door marked "Air Traffic Control".

ATCOs really are screaming mad!

[Hooligan Bill]

For paying the mortgage/bills etc, I can think of a 1001 worse ways of doing it. However, if it wasn't for this, I could find a 1001 things I'd rather be doing.

[atco-matic]

Hate having to go to work.... but love doing it whilst i'm sat in front of a radar screen... unless its the middle of winter when it's boring as :mad:.

[cpt.fellow]

Back in my country it is an unwritten rule, that you should have at least a bachelor's degree to be accepted to ATC training. The reason being, apart from the washout rate, that you have to make your living somehow if it turns out that ATC is simply not for you. And since the training is quite lenghty, you wouldn't like to see 2 years of your life (that would be 10% of your life after completing the training!) wasted, would you? The thing worth knowing is that despite all the examinations and aptitude test, it just so happens that sometimes after the whole training people sit in front of the radar only by themselves for the first time and... freeze. I heard about people who experienced it and immediately went on for other jobs.

I'm in the same situation as you are: except, that I'm already in my penultimate year of BA Finance, Accounting and Management :}

[russ77]

In response to the comments on getting time off; is it not possible to swap shifts with colleagues at a short notice, a week for example? Also when it comes to requesting time off is it first come first serve for certain dates? Excuse my ignorance but as an outsider im just interested how the system works

[flowman]

It's a great career that does not have to begin and end in ATC. Other possibilities open up along the way. If you had a law degree as well that would open up even more opportunities, and you WILL have time to get the law degree when you are a qualified ATCO. Spare time is one of the perks:).
I would say an interest in aviation is desirable but not essential. More importantly you should be able to get on with people and work as part of a team. It can be boring at times (like any job) but also very satisfying.
Good luck with whatever career you choose.:ok:
flowman

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

russ77.. .Assuming it's same as when I was working.... Leave is generally available on a first come first serve basis except during the summer when there are restrictions so nobody takes long hols at the expense of others. If the watch is working Christmas/New Year/Easter there is usually a draw for leave. Swaps are possible provided they comply with the fairly complex system which ensures ATCOs get adequate time off between shifts.

Most people are very accommodating. On three occasions I had six weeks off over Christmas/New Year to go abroad and took no leave during summer, which was to the benefit of my colleagues..