ATC Career
 

I'm considering a career as an ATC and have already applied with Airservices Australia. I have a few questions:

1. Is there much likelihood of ATCs being replaced by computers/machines that can do the job of an ATC within the next 20 years?

2. What options do you have in the future in terms of moving up or into something different? Seems to me you become qualified and then just go up a level each year for another ~$10k wage. Eventually you may become a supervisor as well. Is that about it? Once you're level 9 or supervisor is it a dead end? What about moving into something different, for example I heard of someone going from ATC to being an air crash investigator, is that a common possibility? Is there anything else you can move into after being an ATC?

3. How much is the training bond? And is there much chance of getting out of it early without paying?

I don't know what the situation is regarding computers replacing humans, but I was told (by a computer company owner) in 1971 (when I stared my ATC career), that I was making the wrong choice & would shortly be redundant !
I subsequently did 37 years in ATC.
A friend of mine was a radio operator at Shanwick Oceanic & he was told the same thing about his profession. He has now moved on to be the boss at Shanwick after about 30 years as a radio operator !
Of course, computerization is, perhaps, a lot more imminent now but, based on my experiences, there would seem to be human opportunities in ATC for a long time yet.

Wow, if you are already thinking this way you are going to be a wonderful person to work with! Focus on passing the training first, then consolidating your validation, the path to getting an ATC rating is not an easy one by any means!
Give yourself a few years to actually understand the job before you start looking at other options within Airservices.
There are plenty of other positions that you can move into but none of them will be as enjoyable as doing the job, if you are good at it that is.
Walk before you run, otherwise you will not be very welcome in ATC.

Yeah agree with plenty of that...

ATC isn't really like the corporate wank where you get your foot in the door at a company and then try 'climb the ladder' by whatever means possible. The majority in the job enjoy what they do, and do so because they are one of the select few that are suited to the role.

Of course there is plenty of scope to move into different roles (projects, safety, training, service improvement etc), but what you'll find is that this is often a side/backwards step and comes about because someone isn't cut out for the rigours of ATC anymore.

There are a select few who get hand picked from the ranks and make the jump across to the upper eschalons of management... For their reward they get paid handsomely, get to spend their life in Canberra, and forget what the word No means.

Although there are a few opportunities for controllers outside ATC operations, the approach taken by a lot of ATC organisations is that controllers are expensive to employ and should spend their time controlling. Jobs such as airspace and capacity planning or safety management can be done by people who are employed just to do that for a lot less than paying an experienced controller to do it.

As has already been said, a few controllers have the opportunity to go into senior management but that is something you might get chosen for. You will not normally be able to apply for these jobs.

My advice is that if you want to be a controller you should be prepared to be in the job until you retire. Most controllers are happy to do that.

Computerisation. Yes. Every new computer which appears airside equates to another stack of extra work.