ATCO: knowing it's for you
 

I've been wondering about a career as an ATCO on-and-off for quite some time but have never done anything about it. I'm currently in IT, which pays the bills, but I can't help wondering about making the leap. Do NATS have open days, or other recruitment events? (I can't see anything on their site.) Ideally I'd like to find out a bit more about the job and lifestyle to decide if it's for me but it seems the websites are about the limit of the information going. Perhaps just applying and seeing what happens is the way to go?

When and how did you realise you wanted to be an ATCO? Is the fact that I'm uncertain an indication that it's not for me?

Get a visit to your nearest unit. I expect you will know after that whether it's for you or not.

Try visiting a control tower or area control centre.

I passed NATS selection back in November and found that such visits were exceedingly helpful in getting an idea about what the job is really like and whether its something I could enjoy doing with my life. To be honest, I found the job to be quite different to how I'd imagined it, but for me those differences were all good ones which made me want it even more.

Sometimes visits can be a little hard to arrange, but if you are able to get hold of staff at a particular tower or facility they are usually happy to have you for a few hours.

You were thinking the same thing 5 years ago.... what delayed you?

You're absolutely right. Maintaining the status quo delayed me. I'm paid enough to be comfortable and I work in a reasonable industry. But it's never been something I want to do forever and the longer I take to work out what it is I *do* want to do, the less time I have to do it.

OK. Problem with ATC and similar jobs is that young people tend to have more success than oldies. If you start young you can grow up with it but if you start too late you may never make it.

Good luck with whatever you do...

How late is too late, in your experience?

How late is too late? Difficult question, anywhere between 30 and 50 as a broad estimate with the chances decreasing over time. The oldest successful starter in my experience was in his 40's. However, motivation is more important than age in my opinion. Get yourself a visit to a unit first to see if you really want to take the plunge.

Yep. However there is also a massive difference in success rate that goes with the luck of the draw.
Regardless of age, the chances of being successful at Smallville Tower are probably much greater than working the TMA at Bigtown Control

Training/qualifying somewhere new sucks at the best of times, be it ab initio or an experienced controller starting somewhere new. Generally speaking, the older one becomes, chances are there are more external factors that can distract one's attention from the training game......mortgage, paying the bills, wife, screaming kids, screaming ex-wife you're trying to pay to stop screaming. And unfortunately the old grey matter matter does start slowing down the older you get (or the more you've abused it with wine women and song).

On the flip side, maturity, life experience, motivation and exposure to having to actually put some work into something to succeed are all positives that can come with age. I've seen many "just out of their teens" pitch up with an application in their hand that, when asked "So why Air Traffic Control?" reply along the lines of "Six figure job!" or "My mum/dad/friend" suggested I give it a try". They may have a natural talent for the job, but when the going gets tough, they get the hell out of Dodge pretty quick.

Get to a unit. Talk to the guys and gals. Controllers are never backwards in letting folk know if they like something or if they want to set it on fire then p*ss on it (or not if the case may be)