Former Jobs

Line cook at a restaurant, followed by cable modem installer. Dropped out of college when I discovered beer, joined the AF with ATC in mind. Then FAA, center now TRACON (fo life!)
 
Senior year of college and about to go to law school prior to joining the FAA. I was able to finish my Bachelors and stop studying for the LSAT.
 
It’s been a while since he told me, but from what I remember: start in the $60’s, 10 year scale to around $120 I believe. That’s just your base pay. They get extra pay for different things each month like having your dispatch cert. Flight benefits. The schedule was like 6 on, 2 off, 6 on, 6 off. That was kind of weird but seemed like it would be pretty nice. Don’t remember if there is a pension or not, but would guess not. Plenty of OT if you wanted it. Never got a chance to tour their ops center, but he sent me a picture and it looked really nice and modern as well.

I can confirm SWA dispatch HQ is very, very nice.
 
I was a 3 time college dropout. Worked construction jobs, assembly line jobs and was delivering pizzas when I got hired. That was over thirty years ago. I made it through the unbelievable screening process at the time and just recently retired. Well worth it!!
 
Ramp Tower at RDU International. Even with RDU tower here I had to drive the 3.5 hours to CLT for my MMPI-2.
 
It has been 20+ years since I started in the ATC career field, but here was my employment route: sports referee/umpire, college dropout, baker in a bread factory, joined the U.S. Army... and fast forward to today.
 
I’ve been a Sales Operations Analyst for 11 years at a large international corporation. Staring at excel spreadsheets and keeping the peace among thousands of sales reps worldwide lol
 
It’s been a while since he told me, but from what I remember: start in the $60’s, 10 year scale to around $120 I believe. That’s just your base pay. They get extra pay for different things each month like having your dispatch cert. Flight benefits. The schedule was like 6 on, 2 off, 6 on, 6 off. That was kind of weird but seemed like it would be pretty nice. Don’t remember if there is a pension or not, but would guess not. Plenty of OT if you wanted it. Never got a chance to tour their ops center, but he sent me a picture and it looked really nice and modern as well.

So guess this is a good alternative if someone washes out of the academy? Just did a quick google and saw that most airline dispatch jobs require you to get the FAA certificate, which seems to take only a few weeks and about $5k.
 
So guess this is a good alternative if someone washes out of the academy? Just did a quick google and saw that most airline dispatch jobs require you to get the FAA certificate, which seems to take only a few weeks and about $5k.

Yeah, it’s a good backup plan for sure. I got mine 5 years ago while waiting on atc to pan out. You’d have to work your way up through the ranks via a regional, which usually doesn’t pay that great, but it gets you experience. You could also look into companies like Rockwell Collins and get a job as a flight coordinator. They might even pay for your dispatch cert still.
 
Coldstone, motorcycle mechanic, garbage truck mechanic/welder, Marine Corps ATC, Therapeutic Program Worker at a behavioral hospital (the WORST job I have ever done), and then FAA.
 
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