Air Traffic Control update
Hello everyone
I've been getting facebook comments/text messages etc since wednesday asking how it went, and figured this would be a much easier way to let everyone know where i'm at with my possible career with the FAA as an air traffic controller.
For those of you that don't know, I applied to be an air traffic controller last august and since then I have taken the entrance exam, been put on referral lists, chosen my geographic preference and been tentatively selected for a position as an enroute ATC in ANC. This past wednesday I was invited to go to Chicago and attend the Pre Employment Processing Center (PEPC).
My appointment time was at 9am, and thanks to leaving three hours early and getting lost on the bus/train/public transport system of Chicago, made it right on time. There were 10 of us there for 9am.. we all had to go through a metal detector and had to be escorted by real FAA employees all day.
At the beginning they gave us all a checklist of things we had to do today. It all started with check-in, where they give everyone a bottle of water and beg you to drink up for your pee test. Then one by one they called us into the interview room where real air traffic managers asked us typical interview questions. My interviewer was from the chicago enroute center and seemed very disinterested in the whole process.. which sucks for me as most people had good people who were excited to have people there.. this guy just kept looking at his cell phone. However, i'm fairly confident that I did well and built a decent rapport with him because everytime I answered him he would smile or laugh or nod.. all good signs, i thought!
Afterwards I was taken to HR where they gave me my tentative offer letter which I signed saying I accept the position in ANC.
Following this I had to go to security, where I had to fill out a computer form of my entire life for the past 7 years (residence, employment, credit issues, with each one having a personal reference or two). This took about an hour and a half. Afterwards I was fingerprinted and then led into a room completely far away from the rest of the PEPC. this room was reserved for people with bad credit reports to be interviewed.. I was told I need to contact the companies on my credit report and set up payment plans and fax in letters from these companies ASAP.
Afterwards (one more bottle of water...) I was taken to the psych test.. 567 true/false questions all on a laptop. All the questions were things like "The voice in my head are trying to get me." or "I love my mother (if your mother is dead, 'i loved my mother')". I flew threw that in about 40 minutes.
After this was the medical testing. First a hearing test.. followed by a vision test.. then an EKG.. then a physical.. and last my urine sample which was for the drug test.
After the medical part I had to wait in a room for the doctors to review my results.. much to my surprise I passed everything with flying colors.... except the vision test. Turns out my vision has deteriorated since I had lasik.. my left eye is 20/30 and my right eye is 20/40. Thanks to this I have to get glasses or contacts when I get home tomorrow. I plan on going to walmart and getting the cheapest glasses possible since I dont really need them just yet.
After all this it was all over..
I have the job tentatively.. and all I have to do is a.) get glasses, b.) work on my credit and c.) wait a lot more. they said that none of us should expect to start training until at least january. I have a feeling with me needing to work on my credit a little but it will be even a little longer than that.
Thanks to all of you for your support during this whole process.. if I didn't have yall I would probably go insane with this crazy waiting time!!
I've been getting facebook comments/text messages etc since wednesday asking how it went, and figured this would be a much easier way to let everyone know where i'm at with my possible career with the FAA as an air traffic controller.
For those of you that don't know, I applied to be an air traffic controller last august and since then I have taken the entrance exam, been put on referral lists, chosen my geographic preference and been tentatively selected for a position as an enroute ATC in ANC. This past wednesday I was invited to go to Chicago and attend the Pre Employment Processing Center (PEPC).
My appointment time was at 9am, and thanks to leaving three hours early and getting lost on the bus/train/public transport system of Chicago, made it right on time. There were 10 of us there for 9am.. we all had to go through a metal detector and had to be escorted by real FAA employees all day.
At the beginning they gave us all a checklist of things we had to do today. It all started with check-in, where they give everyone a bottle of water and beg you to drink up for your pee test. Then one by one they called us into the interview room where real air traffic managers asked us typical interview questions. My interviewer was from the chicago enroute center and seemed very disinterested in the whole process.. which sucks for me as most people had good people who were excited to have people there.. this guy just kept looking at his cell phone. However, i'm fairly confident that I did well and built a decent rapport with him because everytime I answered him he would smile or laugh or nod.. all good signs, i thought!
Afterwards I was taken to HR where they gave me my tentative offer letter which I signed saying I accept the position in ANC.
Following this I had to go to security, where I had to fill out a computer form of my entire life for the past 7 years (residence, employment, credit issues, with each one having a personal reference or two). This took about an hour and a half. Afterwards I was fingerprinted and then led into a room completely far away from the rest of the PEPC. this room was reserved for people with bad credit reports to be interviewed.. I was told I need to contact the companies on my credit report and set up payment plans and fax in letters from these companies ASAP.
Afterwards (one more bottle of water...) I was taken to the psych test.. 567 true/false questions all on a laptop. All the questions were things like "The voice in my head are trying to get me." or "I love my mother (if your mother is dead, 'i loved my mother')". I flew threw that in about 40 minutes.
After this was the medical testing. First a hearing test.. followed by a vision test.. then an EKG.. then a physical.. and last my urine sample which was for the drug test.
After the medical part I had to wait in a room for the doctors to review my results.. much to my surprise I passed everything with flying colors.... except the vision test. Turns out my vision has deteriorated since I had lasik.. my left eye is 20/30 and my right eye is 20/40. Thanks to this I have to get glasses or contacts when I get home tomorrow. I plan on going to walmart and getting the cheapest glasses possible since I dont really need them just yet.
After all this it was all over..
I have the job tentatively.. and all I have to do is a.) get glasses, b.) work on my credit and c.) wait a lot more. they said that none of us should expect to start training until at least january. I have a feeling with me needing to work on my credit a little but it will be even a little longer than that.
Thanks to all of you for your support during this whole process.. if I didn't have yall I would probably go insane with this crazy waiting time!!