so i have a little bit of insight into this whole thing. i got a few friends who are controllers and i’ve been in the hiring process myself for nearly 2 years. to save you the history of the hiring process of the last few years: long. duffy “supercharged” the hiring process last year, making it take a lot less time than it used to (months instead of years).
anyway, we don’t actually know if 2000 “gamers” got hired from this latest bid, they’re just saying that because they were catering to gamers with the advertisement (which was majority genAI content lmao). if you applied to the bid, you’re automatically a gamer.
now a few things on what this means for us and the safety of aviation. the minimum requirements are as follows: do you have a pulse? can you obtain a security clearance? do you not have any medical problems that will make you unfit to do the job? have you not taken any federally illegal drugs in the last few years? can you do a few basic math problems? if you can answer yes to all of these questions, you get hired. that’s what the 2000 number is.
when you get hired by the FAA, those 2000 people don’t immediately get to go control traffic at the busiest airport. all ATC candidates must go to the FAA’s training academy in OKC for 3-4 months to learn how to control traffic. it’s designed to train someone who doesn’t even know what a plane is to the basics of controlling traffic, phraseology and proper procedures and all. not everyone makes it through the academy and is a large percent of the attrition rate for applicants.
only after all that do they go to a real facility, but not like LAX. and then they learn some more before touching live traffic.
so overall, i’m not super worried about it. only the people who are actually capable will get though and even then, it will be well over a year before they are controlling on their own if they don’t fail training at their facility
What bogus hysteria. Do you have any idea how many people play video games? Would you expect them not to advertise a recruitment drive on television because we don’t want our air traffic controllers to just kick up their feet and watch the screens? Let’s not be idiots.
It’s far more interesting to ask why they need to advertise a recruitment drive. The profession has been losing skilled people because its high skill, high stress, high stakes, and their paycheck gets jerked around every time there’s a government shutdown. Let’s focus on that instead of clutching our pearls over them hiring people who have played video games before.
about 6 months minimum before they’re allowed to talk to real planes, a year and a half minimum after that before they are out on their own. the academy will get rid of a lot of people who truly are not cut out for this type of work, and facility training will get rid of more. tbh i’m not super worried because the job is do it by the book or find another job. if they don’t do it right, they won’t be talking to real traffic for very long if at all
so i have a little bit of insight into this whole thing. i got a few friends who are controllers and i’ve been in the hiring process myself for nearly 2 years. to save you the history of the hiring process of the last few years: long. duffy “supercharged” the hiring process last year, making it take a lot less time than it used to (months instead of years).
anyway, we don’t actually know if 2000 “gamers” got hired from this latest bid, they’re just saying that because they were catering to gamers with the advertisement (which was majority genAI content lmao). if you applied to the bid, you’re automatically a gamer.
now a few things on what this means for us and the safety of aviation. the minimum requirements are as follows: do you have a pulse? can you obtain a security clearance? do you not have any medical problems that will make you unfit to do the job? have you not taken any federally illegal drugs in the last few years? can you do a few basic math problems? if you can answer yes to all of these questions, you get hired. that’s what the 2000 number is.
when you get hired by the FAA, those 2000 people don’t immediately get to go control traffic at the busiest airport. all ATC candidates must go to the FAA’s training academy in OKC for 3-4 months to learn how to control traffic. it’s designed to train someone who doesn’t even know what a plane is to the basics of controlling traffic, phraseology and proper procedures and all. not everyone makes it through the academy and is a large percent of the attrition rate for applicants.
only after all that do they go to a real facility, but not like LAX. and then they learn some more before touching live traffic.
so overall, i’m not super worried about it. only the people who are actually capable will get though and even then, it will be well over a year before they are controlling on their own if they don’t fail training at their facility
So, be worried in about 6 months then?
What bogus hysteria. Do you have any idea how many people play video games? Would you expect them not to advertise a recruitment drive on television because we don’t want our air traffic controllers to just kick up their feet and watch the screens? Let’s not be idiots.
It’s far more interesting to ask why they need to advertise a recruitment drive. The profession has been losing skilled people because its high skill, high stress, high stakes, and their paycheck gets jerked around every time there’s a government shutdown. Let’s focus on that instead of clutching our pearls over them hiring people who have played video games before.
about 6 months minimum before they’re allowed to talk to real planes, a year and a half minimum after that before they are out on their own. the academy will get rid of a lot of people who truly are not cut out for this type of work, and facility training will get rid of more. tbh i’m not super worried because the job is do it by the book or find another job. if they don’t do it right, they won’t be talking to real traffic for very long if at all
He said 3-4 months lol
For education, plus some more before real traffic
Sorry was making a joke, that under this admin, they’ll push them through, kinda like they do with the rent a cops at ICE.