1. Tell us a little about yourself (Where are you from? How old are you? Describe your job and how long you’ve been at it, ect).<\/strong><\/p>\nMy name is Chris Solomon. I\u2019m 33 years old, originally from Purvis, Mississippi. I joined the Air Force in 1996 as an F-15E mechanic and changed jobs after 3 years to become an Air Traffic Controller. I have been controlling planes for the military for 11 years now.<\/p>\n
2. Why did you want to become an air traffic controller? When did you know it was what you wanted to do?<\/strong><\/p>\nI wanted to do a job that mentally challenged me that would provide a good living for a family, even though I wasn\u2019t married when I changed jobs. I also wanted something that would be useful after I transitioned to civilian life after my military time was complete. I never really thought about doing ATC, thinking it was one of those \u201cunachievable\u201d jobs that you have to train for years and years to get. I was surprised that that wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n
3. If a man wants to become an air traffic controller, how should he prepare? Are there schools that train air traffic controllers? Or do they teach you on the job?<\/strong><\/p>\nThere are essentially 3 ways to become a controller. The first is through the military. The second is through an affiliate college that offers an ATC program. There are currently about 30 schools across the US that offer FAA approved programs in ATC. While these don\u2019t guarantee you an ATC job, it paves the way. The third way is to get hired directly through the FAA and attend their ATC Academy in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n
4. As I understand it, there are many different types of air traffic controllers, each with different responsibilities. Tell us about that.<\/strong><\/p>\nJust as an assembly line is broken down into individual jobs, so is the nation\u2019s air traffic system. There are controllers in the towers, approaches, and centers, and in each of those facilities, they have different positions. It\u2019s easiest to lay it out in an example. The typical tower controllers get the planes from the gate to the runway and then airborne to within 5 or so miles of an airport. The aircraft then becomes under the control of the approach controllers. The approach controllers usually control the aircraft below 18,000\u2019 within about 60 miles of an airport. After going above 18,000\u2019, the aircraft is then in the center controller\u2019s airspace and is taken across the higher altitudes to the plane\u2019s destination. Upon getting near its destination, the whole process steps back down from center, to approach, to the tower and to a gate. Like I said though, each facility has its own unique positions to get each facet of the job done as safely and as orderly as possible.<\/p>\n
5. How competitive is it to get a job as an air traffic controller? What sets a candidate apart from others when he’s applying for a job?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s highly competitive right now. The controller strike that took place back in the 80\u2019s had the job outlook pretty nice for awhile, but now there are a lot of newer controllers in the facilities, and the spots are fewer and farther between, so we do what we can to make ourselves competitive. The military experience helps a lot; the college programs that are offered through the FAA approved schools are also pretty helpful from what I understand.<\/p>\n
6. What qualities does a man need to be a successful air traffic controller?<\/strong><\/p>\nIf I was building a controller, I\u2019d say the top 5 things I\u2019d put in would be being able to think on your feet in stressful situations, the ability to make sound decisions, ability to take criticism, systematic thinking, and the ability to have fun while you\u2019re working. It\u2019s not a physically demanding job, but sometimes you go home and are mentally exhausted.<\/p>\n
7. What is the best part of your job?<\/strong><\/p>\nLots of things. The knowledge that what I do literally saves thousands of lives in a single day, the people that you work with, the feeling you get when you get through a particularly busy traffic period. Those things really get me. My wife likes the looks on people\u2019s faces when she tells them I\u2019m a controller. She says they get this kind of dumbstruck look and then ask the most common question, \u201cMan, is that stressful?\u201d<\/p>\n
8. What is the worst part of your job?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe constant knowing that you have to be above average 100% of the time or else you will kill a bunch of people.<\/p>\n
9. What\u2019s the work\/family\/life balance like?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe hours aren\u2019t great. There are a lot of times when I have spent more time with my co-workers than with my family due to working shift work, but then there are decent periods where it seems like I am never at work. You learn to make it work.<\/p>\n
10. What is the biggest misconception people have about your job?<\/strong><\/p>\nI am NOT the guy on the ground with the flashlights telling your pilot where to park at the airport. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as stressful as people make it out to be, but then again, people handle stress differently. Lastly, the money isn\u2019t as good as it\u2019s made out to be anymore. There is still the chance to get that 6 figure salary, but those slots aren\u2019t as abundant anymore.<\/p>\n
11. Any other advice, tips, or anecdotes you\u2019d like to share? <\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s a great job! It\u2019s tough at times, but when the traffic slows down and you can hang out with the people that do this job, man, I\u2019m still blown away by some of the folks you get to meet!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once again we return to our So You Want My Job series, in which we interview men who are employed in desirable jobs and ask them about the reality of their work and for advice on how men can live their dream. Last time we heard from the guy who flies the planes. This week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[424,42279],"tags":[42294],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-money-wealth","tag-so-you-want-my-job"],"featured_image_urls":{"aom":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2010\/05\/air1-372x230.jpg","reactor-320":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2010\/05\/air1-320x214.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10121"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135404,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10121\/revisions\/135404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10121"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/\/2010\/05\/air1.jpg\" "\\"air")
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