Whats your Career?

I have to say I'm a little surprised by all the interest in ATC. I mean I totally agree its a fascinating career and one that I would consider myself, but traditionally its been the pilots that are the ones who are looked up too! Not saying that ATC shouldn't be looked up upon obviously, I just think its interesting to see how things have changed. Saying that, this is a computer hardware forum, so I guess a job where you sit infront of a screen would be more appealing to the populous here then then a job looking out the window :D


Trick - Is that a hawk your in? looks like it in the 2nd pic.....very jealous ;)
 
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Blinkz said:
I have to say I'm a little surprised by all the interest in ATC. I mean I totally agree its a fascinating career and one that I would consider myself, but traditionally its been the pilots that are the ones who are looked up too! Not saying that ATC shouldn't be looked up upon obviously, I just think its interesting to see how things have changed. Saying that, this is a computer hardware forum, so I guess a job where you sit infront of a screen would be more appealing to the populous here then then a job looking out the window :D


Trick - Is that a hawk your in? looks like it in the 2nd pic.....very jealous ;)
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Bloody glorified bus drivers.....:p

There's nothing glamorous about ATC really, the general public thinks we stand out on the apron with bright orange ping pong bats ffs :p
The job of an Airline Pilot seems to have lost some of it's glamour too as you say. The days of the pilots marching through the terminal followed by a trail of hosties seem to be long gone. Nowadays they take off their gold bars and try to shuffle past without being seen! It's a shame.
When I was on a famil flight with BA to Hamburg a few years ago, the 757 captain said to me "We're not pilots any more, we're ****ing systems managers"

Ahh well, who cares - think of the money :D
 
8igdave said:
Oooo i wana do that too :) But whats the pay... im looking to be earning up to 100k and maybe more when i peak in my job.
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Crikey, don't we all! You'll never hit 6 figures in the RAF unless you make Air Rank, and to do that you need to be an aircrew mate and be very very sharp.

As an ATCO in the RAF you're looking at £40k with very many perks that push the pay towards the £50k mark in real terms when compared to the civvies. Once you advance to Sqn Ldr or Wg Cdr the pay increases steadily again. So if you're after cash don't go into the Military basically. As the Scuzmeister said earlier, you can hit the £100k mark in civvy air traffic if you sidestep into management and projects at a later stage. Shop floor you're looking at 50-60 i'd think if you're in an Area job at one of the centres. £35-50 is more realistic if you're in a provincial terminal unit.

Yes, it's a Hawk. I've had a few plays in the F3, a GR4 and an F16. Numerous rides in the different types of Helos as well including a damn scarey flight over the red-zone of Basrah whilst being rocketed!
 
Blinkz said:
I have to say I'm a little surprised by all the interest in ATC. I mean I totally agree its a fascinating career and one that I would consider myself, but traditionally its been the pilots that are the ones who are looked up too! )
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TBH the money of pilots is nice but what attracted me about ATC is that relatively speaking you know where you are sleeping everynight.
 
I'm uneployed at the moment, and SICK OF IT! But Can't get a job just right now due to personal circumstances.

How ever my career was(and hopefully will be again) a Systems Engineer Technician in the British Army. The quicker I get back into the army the better to be honest, getting bored of civvy life lol.
 
I'm a technician at a university looking after student computing labs and general IT support for staff members. Mix of stuff including Novell Netware/Windows/Linux server/desktop support, video conferencing and wireless networking.

Lots of changes going on though due to budget cuts, "modernisation" and security auditors so not sure how much longer I'll be at the uni or in my current job role.
 
Trick said:
Shop floor you're looking at 50-60 i'd think if you're in an Area job at one of the centres. £35-50 is more realistic if you're in a provincial terminal unit.
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Top of the scale for an ATCO in Area is currently £89k basic + shift allowance which takes it up to about £95k. It should go to over £100k in the next year or two. You can hit top of the scale within 10 years IIRC..

Regional units vary greatly with the banding but £60-70k is about top of the scale for them.

We have had quite a few Mil controllers come over to the civvy side for the money and the stability, there were 2 on my course alone but unfortunately not many of them seem to make it - probably due to having to forget how to control 'military style' and learn a whole new method of operations which is bloody difficult to do.
 
Scuzi said:
We have had quite a few Mil controllers come over to the civvy side for the money and the stability, there were 2 on my course alone but unfortunately not many of them seem to make it - probably due to having to forget how to control 'military style' and learn a whole new method of operations which is bloody difficult to do.
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Were they ex-LATCC Mil, Swanwick mil or Prestwick controllers or were they Terminal bods? Interesting that they struggle as even though terminal is worlds apart from the Area task the Area Mil guys draw many parallels with their civvy counterparts.
 
I work in an International Water Engineering firm, in the Consultancy branch. Based in Scotland.

Obviously being in Scotland we only have Scottish Water, and that's who we work for.

Pretty interesting job, every days different. And you probably have no idea how complex the water network underground is ! :)
 
Windle said:
I work in an International Water Engineering firm, in the Consultancy branch. Based in Scotland.

Obviously being in Scotland we only have Scottish Water, and that's who we work for.

Pretty interesting job, every days different. And you probably have no idea how complex the water network underground is ! :)
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I Do :D hehe....
 
DB_SamX said:
What grade member of the IEEE are you, if at all?
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Not in the IEEE - I'm MIET, working towards CEng - intend to be there within 2-3 years (graduated 18 months ago).

It's certainly a consideration of mine. I'm an electronic engineering student though. I guess you need electrical qualifications?
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There's a guy I work with who did environmental management for his degree and is now an electrical engineer, so I'm sure electronics would be fine. The only thing I have used from my degree is P=IV!

If one of the two Mains Incommer lines goes we have to call in the high voltage guys to deal with it. Not that many of them about to deal with.
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On the banks of Loch Lomond I would guess that you'd be calling Scottish Hydro? Do you mean the HV incomers from the distribution network? I would guess you'd be an 11kV customer and would have your own authorised people? Or do you contract that out to the switchgear company you're talking about. Tell me what they charge you and in a year or so once I'm fully authorised we can have a conversation!

I'm quite surprised by how much interest there has been in my job! Just to put a dampener on things, about 2 hours ago I was down a hole in the road in Dunfermline covering two cable joints with mud so I could energise the cable at 11kV. I didn't have a shovel so I was using a dustpan out the cleaner's cupboard in the neighbouring school! I'm also on call from 8am tomorrow til 8am on Sunday so I'm not really allowed to be any more than 20 miles from my house.
 
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aix0 said:
I've wondered about contracting, seems to be the way to go. Mind if I add you to MSN to pick your brain a little? :)
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Not at all, probably much better people to talk to on here though. I have no qualifications and always take the easiest options rather than the best re wages etc.
 
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