Center preferences

Fb

Member
Messages
23
Can someone tell me what makes the Denver center so attractive? Seems like an odd place to be the most popular
 
Those of you who have been around for a little while, how would you rank the centers as far as most desirable? I'm not looking for a personal list of favorites, more like a list of places where you'll have to finish at the top of your class in order to get there.
 
Those of you who have been around for a little while, how would you rank the centers as far as most desirable? I'm not looking for a personal list of favorites, more like a list of places where you'll have to finish at the top of your class in order to get there.
What? How would anyone be able to give you an answer to that. Every class is different.
 
What? How would anyone be able to give you an answer to that. Every class is different.

Not looking for a personal list of your favorites, just a general idea of the places that seem to be picked higher than others. I'd imagine ZOA would be near the bottom, but from reading things on here it seems ZSE and ZDV are fairly desirable.
 
Not looking for a personal list of your favorites, just a general idea of the places that seem to be picked higher than others. I'd imagine ZOA would be near the bottom, but from reading things on here it seems ZSE and ZDV are fairly desirable.
ZMP ZOA ZNY have the highest post academy wash rates.
 
Not looking for a personal list of your favorites, just a general idea of the places that seem to be picked higher than others. I'd imagine ZOA would be near the bottom, but from reading things on here it seems ZSE and ZDV are fairly desirable.

The evaluators and people at the academy said ZMP was the country club of centers, along with some other people here that transferred..... I don’t see it personally, no idea why I’ve heard that. I’d say ZDV ZSE ZLC ZJX & ZBW are some top desired centers, idk though, just my opinion.
 
The evaluators and people at the academy said ZMP was the country club of centers, along with some other people here that transferred..... I don’t see it personally, no idea why I’ve heard that. I’d say ZDV ZSE ZLC ZJX & ZBW are some top desired centers, idk though, just my opinion.


ZDV and ZBW are probably 2 of the most sought after, as they are fairly decently staffed and haven’t appeared very often on the placement list for new hires.

Most likely because of the cost of living and pay (decent locality rates, trade off of Colorado state tax vs NE higher property taxes, good checkout rates and times, and the amount of things to go outside of work in those locales.

Cost of Living Comparison: compare Longmont, Colorado to Nashua, New Hampshire
 
Those of you who have been around for a little while, how would you rank the centers as far as most desirable? I'm not looking for a personal list of favorites, more like a list of places where you'll have to finish at the top of your class in order to get there.
Like Boots mentioned, an individual academy class will vary wildly depending on where everyone is from. I've seen classes where places I would rank #1 go unselected and places I'd never dream of going are selected #1. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. You'll soon find out timing is everything in this agency as well. There are windows to get to certain facilities and once those windows close, they could take years to re-open.

With all that being said, in terms of sheer ERR's (transfer requests) in the NCEPT process (procedure for CPC movement within the agency), and the fact that the NCEPT will now have panels every 2 months, ZTL, ZHU, ZBW, ZJX, ZDV, and ZSE will be very hard to get to out of the academy in the next few years as the majority of (if not all) of their available vacancies will be filled with CPC's.

Conversely, places like ZOA, ZNY, ZAU, ZMP, ZKC, ZMA, and ZLA will show up on a lot of academy lists over the next few years.
 
Can someone tell me what makes the Denver center so attractive? Seems like an odd place to be the most popular
Are you from the East Coast? The only people I’ve heard say similar things were from NY and thought everything west of Chicago and east of LA didn’t matter
 
Lol I’ve just never heard much about Denver. I take it that it is a really nice area then?
Yes it is. More expensive than I'd want to deal with though. Plus it's a level 10. Earn enough to be comfortable, but nothing crazy.
 
as an Ohio native, ZOB or ZID would be pretty neat. As a person who loves music and the outdoors, ZDV or ZSE would be pretty neat also. I don't ever see myself going from terminal to en route unless it was one of those 4. I would love to live in Alaska for a while but the non-radar garbage they have to work would suck. good thing there is also terminal positions in all of these locations. but honestly, ZID and ZOB get overlooked in my opinion. they seem to be relatively easy compared to some other ARTCCs. I don't think ZID has any tower in its airspace above a level 8. could be wrong.

edit... forgot to mention how cheap it is to live in cleveland or indy and oberlin (where ZOB is) is actually super nice, and a decent distance away from the mistake by the lake.
 
Like Boots mentioned, an individual academy class will vary wildly depending on where everyone is from. I've seen classes where places I would rank #1 go unselected and places I'd never dream of going are selected #1. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. You'll soon find out timing is everything in this agency as well. There are windows to get to certain facilities and once those windows close, they could take years to re-open.

With all that being said, in terms of sheer ERR's (transfer requests) in the NCEPT process (procedure for CPC movement within the agency), and the fact that the NCEPT will now have panels every 2 months, ZTL, ZHU, ZBW, ZJX, ZDV, and ZSE will be very hard to get to out of the academy in the next few years as the majority of (if not all) of their available vacancies will be filled with CPC's.

Conversely, places like ZOA, ZNY, ZAU, ZMP, ZKC, ZMA, and ZLA will show up on a lot of academy lists over the next few years.
With that said, I don't see any mention of ZDC. I haven't noticed it on the placement list much lately for graduates. Is that a less desirable place or just so in the middle it goes either way?
 
If you want to work at ZDV and want to live within 30 min of the Center expect to pay 325k min for a house. If you want to live in Denver it’s a min 400k and Boulder more like 500k. There is also a poor union/management relationship at ZDV. We have gone to impass on bidding 2 of the past 3 years.
 
as an Ohio native, ZOB or ZID would be pretty neat. As a person who loves music and the outdoors, ZDV or ZSE would be pretty neat also. I don't ever see myself going from terminal to en route unless it was one of those 4. I would love to live in Alaska for a while but the non-radar garbage they have to work would suck. good thing there is also terminal positions in all of these locations. but honestly, ZID and ZOB get overlooked in my opinion. they seem to be relatively easy compared to some other ARTCCs. I don't think ZID has any tower in its airspace above a level 8. could be wrong.

edit... forgot to mention how cheap it is to live in cleveland or indy and oberlin (where ZOB is) is actually super nice, and a decent distance away from the mistake by the lake.

As someone who has ZID and ZOB in my top 5, that makes me very happy to hear. I live in Indy now and would love to stay here. I hope people continue to overlook it.
 
With that said, I don't see any mention of ZDC. I haven't noticed it on the placement list much lately for graduates. Is that a less desirable place or just so in the middle it goes either way?

I don't work at ZDC but live near it. It's a nice area about 45 minutes to an hour outside of DC but it's expensive as hell to live here. You do make good money at ZDC and can make it work but Loudoun County is consistently the 1st or 2nd richest County in the country with Fairfax County taking the other spot right next door. Townhouses just up the street from the facility are going for $500k and a single family home will set you back $650-$800k. So to sum up, great area, good place to raise a family, little to no crime, but expensive.
 
Back
Top Bottom