Question that no one may have an answer to but its worth a shot

L

Lahardee

Member
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So im seriously considering going into ATC as my career. Ive toured two facilities and talked to multiple controllers and the general consensus is its overall a great job.

Im currently 17 almost 18, I have 1 year of work experience and are about to enroll in a CTI program. By the time I finish that I'm looking at around 2022 to apply, or until a bid is posted. Im In Jacksonville Florida and would love to get sent back here for either center or terminal.
Whats the chances of me getting assigned to one of those two facilities? I know ZJX currently has a training backlog but I would think it'd clear up in two years.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks All!
 
Very rarely do you get the facility you want from the start. It’s possible to move within the agency but if you read any of the NCEPT threads also very difficult. Also remember your picks for facility is dependent on class ranking. Regardless, I still think it’s a great job and you should still apply- you have nothing to lose by applying.
 
DankVectorz said:
Skip CTI and get a useful degree. You can still apply to the FAA without CTI and they won’t teach you anything useful for ATC.
Click to expand...

I'm not arguing this at all. However, there is a change potentially coming with S.1148 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): ATC Hiring Reform Act of 2019.

If that passes, CTI would be worth it again. I would highly advise a duel major or do ATC-CTI as a minor if it qualifies.

I would wait to see if this change gets written into law before doing CTI. As of now it's a really expensive degree that's not as useful as something else.
 
Lahardee said:
So im seriously considering going into ATC as my career. Ive toured two facilities and talked to multiple controllers and the general consensus is its overall a great job.

Im currently 17 almost 18, I have 1 year of work experience and are about to enroll in a CTI program. By the time I finish that I'm looking at around 2022 to apply, or until a bid is posted. Im In Jacksonville Florida and would love to get sent back here for either center or terminal.
Whats the chances of me getting assigned to one of those two facilities? I know ZJX currently has a training backlog but I would think it'd clear up in two years.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks All!
Click to expand...
YouAppearToBeOnFire said:
I'm not arguing this at all. However, there is a change potentially coming with S.1148 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): ATC Hiring Reform Act of 2019.

If that passes, CTI would be worth it again. I would highly advise a duel major or do ATC-CTI as a minor if it qualifies.

I would wait to see if this change gets written into law before doing CTI. As of now it's a really expensive degree that's not as useful as something else.
Click to expand...


Agreed. I majored in Biology and just received an FOL for an OTS bid. The Bio degree has been super helpful for finding a job in the meantime while I went through the steps of applying for the bid.
 
DankVectorz said:
Skip CTI and get a useful degree. You can still apply to the FAA without CTI and they won’t teach you anything useful for ATC.
Click to expand...
While a CTI degree is significantly less beneficial than ten years ago to say that they won't teach you anything is incorrect. Assuming you do your research and actually pick a good CTI school you can learn everything covered in basics and then some. You could already know Academy airspace and how to work with voice rec simulators. There are a multitude of benefits to a good CTI school... Only the applicant can decide if the benefits outweigh just applying ots with no aviation experience.
 
GulfBravoPapa said:
While a CTI degree is significantly less beneficial than ten years ago to say that they won't teach you anything is incorrect. Assuming you do your research and actually pick a good CTI school you can learn everything covered in basics and then some. You could already know Academy airspace and how to work with voice rec simulators. There are a multitude of benefits to a good CTI school... Only the applicant can decide if the benefits outweigh just applying ots with no aviation experience.
Click to expand...
CTI can also be risky because it ramps up the stakes of failing at the academy. A guy in my class was CTI and surprisingly failed and I felt so awful for him. Did pretty good the whole time and walked away with nothing but a sad face and a ton of debt
 
YouAppearToBeOnFire said:
I'm not arguing this at all. However, there is a change potentially coming with S.1148 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): ATC Hiring Reform Act of 2019.

If that passes, CTI would be worth it again. I would highly advise a duel major or do ATC-CTI as a minor if it qualifies.

I would wait to see if this change gets written into law before doing CTI. As of now it's a really expensive degree that's not as useful as something else.
Click to expand...
Honestly I wouldn’t put too much stock in this just yet. It’s currently #319 on the senate calendar of business, in the company of such bills as S908 which provides for “equitable management of summer flounder based on geographic, scientific, and economic data and for other purposes” which is #317. It’s unlikely that this bill will ever see discussion on the senate floor.
Plus, didn’t they just remove the 10% rule for the different hiring pools? I’m sure we will see if it’s really worth it to give preferential hiring to CTI soon enough if that’s the case.
 
Schu04 said:
Honestly I wouldn’t put too much stock in this just yet. It’s currently #319 on the senate calendar of business, in the company of such bills as S908 which provides for “equitable management of summer flounder based on geographic, scientific, and economic data and for other purposes” which is #317. It’s unlikely that this bill will ever see discussion on the senate floor.
Plus, didn’t they just remove the 10% rule for the different hiring pools? I’m sure we will see if it’s really worth it to give preferential hiring to CTI soon enough if that’s the case.
Click to expand...

I’ll take your word as I have no clue how that all works in it’s entirety.

Which is always why I stand by not advising people to do CTI as their major or only major. It took a few years of building experience in an industry to receive a competitive offer. Even then my BS only checked a box.
 
Lahardee said:
So im seriously considering going into ATC as my career. Ive toured two facilities and talked to multiple controllers and the general consensus is its overall a great job.

Im currently 17 almost 18, I have 1 year of work experience and are about to enroll in a CTI program. By the time I finish that I'm looking at around 2022 to apply, or until a bid is posted. Im In Jacksonville Florida and would love to get sent back here for either center or terminal.
Whats the chances of me getting assigned to one of those two facilities? I know ZJX currently has a training backlog but I would think it'd clear up in two years.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks All!
Click to expand...

The only way I would advise a CTI degree is if the school offers a broad degree in Aeronautics/Aviation. A degree that can get you into multiple careers in the field. That is, if you’re interested in aviation as a whole. If ATC is strictly what you want to do, I would give it some thought first. If I could do it again, I would get another degree and still apply for ATC. Even though the aeronautics degree could get me into other areas of the field, all I really want to do is ATC so the aeronautics degree isn’t really helping me.
 
Personally, I don’t think a CTI degree gives anyone a leg up on an OTS hire. My class had a grocery store worker with no college degree make it, and an Embry Riddle CTI graduate fail out. 8/11 OTS hires made it and 3/7 CTIs made it in my class. CAMI was collecting data about education backgrounds and success rates when I went through. I’d be interested to see it.
 
CTI is great as long as you get the job. Obviously there’s no way to tell if you would have gotten in with OTS only without being just OTS.

I liked CTI because it got me the job when there was a CTI only bid. Make no mistake, though - I absolutely realize how incredibly useless the actual degree is when it comes to the job.

You can only make decisions based on the information presently available. And if staying in Jacksonville is really, really important to you then it’s time to consider other careers because only one thing is certain: things will change dramatically between now and by the time you finish CTI.
 

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