A heads up for everyone applying/pursuing this option.. there is no transfer ability to tower or center, even though those are options of the same field. You will receive "You are not eligible to submit an ERR for this position as you do not meet the minimum qualifications" statement from regional HRs on submission of the ERR packet. If you apply for an OTS or Prior Exp bid as directed by the service areas and regional HR, you will receive a "2152 CPC cannot utilize the application process to transfer facilities" response from OKC HR. FSS is not part of the NCEPT process, even though it is covered by the MOU. FSS cannot ERR even though it is covered by the contract. NATCA "represents" FSS but does not represent FSS. Grievances to try and address the deficiencies will be received but not answered (mine is 17 months old at this point, with no responses other than 2 90-day extensions that ended Nov 21, 2018 ). The regional rep was questioned about this on the telecon last week, and was informed there are members considering external employment because of the lack of lateral transfer and was quoted as saying "I have empathy, but I have no sympathy" and "they can quit". You'll also find FSS is the only option in the FAA where a controller's inability to do basic components of the job (IE, relaying an IFR clearance) is met with a qualification so long as they are over 40, if you are under the age of 40 and misspell the name of a native language named river or you read back NOTAM information airport dept of transportation asked you to issue and the read back isn't what they wanted (but they do not correct you), you will receive a record of conversation.
Good luck all, but I'd caution against working in FSS. This is the first job that has actually made me miss working retail.
Thanks for the heads up. As much as I would love to live in Alaska the no transfer thing kills it for me. I know my wife would be fine for a few years but then need to be somewhere closer to her family. To be honest, I'm trying to follow that one guy from earlier in the thread. Try to get a TOL sooner than the OTS in order to get my medical/MMPI/etc done. Then when the OTS TOL's go out that information can carry over. Since the ATSA emails are going out today it looks that those TOL's might be end of October/beginning of November. Hoping the timelines work out, figured it is worth a shot.