Woah... thats awesome ^.^

[SinfulWeeper]

I was watching Resident Evil on my computer with the volume a little loud, loud enough to wake my son up. I hit pause right away when he came into my room and asked him was my volume up too loud, did you get scared?
He replies to me. 'No this fake stuff does not scare me, I see it on TV nearly all the time and other kids talk about it all the time.' In my mind I said WTF... 7 year olds know this stuff already???? He continued on to say 'When I grow up I want to work for something that really is scary.' I said in my mind chit, he wants to be daredevil or a fighter pilot. I said 'Okay, what is really scary that you want to be part of?' He replied 'I want to be one of those people that line up jets for landing.' In my mind I said woah, thats a job with so much on the line. It would be scary. I asked him 'Are you sure thats what you want to do?' He replied 'Yeah, I would be saving more peoples lives then the best doctor ever would do, is it alright if I use the batroom and go back to bed?' I said 'Yes you can'

I did a quick search on the internet while he was in the bathroom to see how much air traffic controllers make...
My eyes shot out. The lowest paid ATC makes $57K per year in the united states with the average ATC making $120K per year :Q.
Damn, I hope he does follow up while growing up. He would make more money in 3 years then I made in my lifetime. That would be so awesome

 

[pyonir]

That's pretty cool. But..keep in mind...he's 7.

Some assorted jobs that i wanted to be when i grew up: mechanic, police officer, fireman, federal law enforcement agent. Which of those did i accomplish? None of the above. he's got a lot of time to think about it...don't get ahead of yourself.

That's pretty damn good that he knows what they do already and has thought about that.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Maybe he just saw Pushing Tin on TV and wants some Angelina Jolie lovin'

 

[andylawcc]

:thumbsup:

that must be the proudest moment of fatherhood.

 

[NanoStuff]

Originally posted by: SinfulWeeper
The lowest paid ATC makes $57K per year in the united states with the average ATC making $120K per year :Q.

Yea, but they have liability for damaged aircraft, so you better hope you're on the upper wage scale if you're $300M in debt.

 

[jjzelinski]

The liability is covered by their union.

 

[FoBoT]

that is a good job, other than the stress

my sis-in-law is one in the Navy

 

[Quasmo]

I used to want to be a train engineer, and live in a trailer. Then I wanted to be a neurosurgeon. Then a Computer engineer. I'm a film major.

 

[rocadelpunk]

that's pretty cool. I mean I understand 7 yr olds "will say the darndest things," but this is a fair bit different than I want to be a firefighter, astronaut...etc

 

[Koing]

Thats unusual for a kid!

I wanted to be a pilot but my gimped eyes weren't great...also the fact it was obscenely pricey and the chances were slim to none. Then I did CS .

Koing

 

[RKS]

I've already told my 3 Y.O. he can be anything he wants, as long as it is either:
doctor, lawyer , or engineer (PhD).

 

[gwrober]

Air Force plug:

The military is definitely an option for free training! ATC is a stressful job tho....

 

[jjzelinski]

Originally posted by: gwrober
Air Force plug:

The military is definitely an option for free training! ATC is a stressful job tho....

I work with USAF Air Traffic Controllers daily and the vast majority of them make their job out to be much harder than it is. That being said, it is an awesome route to get pipelined into the FAA through though.

 

[Kaspian]

Thats awesome.












The three most stressfull jobs: ATC, brain surgeon, 911 operator.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Damn. 57k minimum? :Q

:thumbsup: Good for him. Maybe he had a dream about it

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

Meh, brain surgeons are overrated, anyone can be a brain surgeon.

All you need is a hacksaw and patience.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Uh as a kid I wanted to be a doctor. Then I wanted to be a lawyer and then an engineer. Oh how Asian. I wanted to be an engineer since I was in junior high or something. What did I know? I mean I don't think I really wanted to be an engineer until my 3rd year in college.

 

[JImmyK]

ATC is the highest paying job on avg. you can have in America with only a high school diploma. Well that's what my friends dad told us in 1998 who was an air traffic controller at Washington Dulles international airport.

 

[Slew Foot]

You made less than 360K in your life?

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: rocadelpunk
that's pretty cool. I mean I understand 7 yr olds "will say the darndest things," but this is a fair bit different than I want to be a firefighter, astronaut...etc

I know someone who said she wanted to be a mortician. She was interested in surgery, but didn't like the idea of working on living people.

 

[TangoJuliet]

I work for ATC and yes, once it was a great job. Not so anymore.

Starting pay is $31,500. Getting raises depends on how much you can check out on. It doesnt matter on skill but rather who is willing to train you and who is in front of you on your training.

For example at an ARTCC it can take anywhere from 5-7 years to get fully certified...meaning you will be stuck at 31,500 for 2-3 years or so. Thats all fine and good for some people but try living in a high cost area like NY or Miami and you can barely afford to live off that.

Also, you need to spend 17 weeks down in OKC for training at an annual pay of about $18,000 which works out to about $9/hour. You have to pay for your own housing, food and transportation during that time. I believe take home salary for 2 weeks is about $500 without medical benefits (if you chose to decline). Last time I checked the apartments to rent down there were about $30/day.....so after the housing you'll have about $100/m for food.

Currently there are only 2 ways to get hired with the FAA - go to a approved college or be a military controller. There are only 12 approved schools in the US and most of them are pretty costly. My college tuition cost me around $80,000 so also take that into consideration. The FAA needs to hire around 12,000 peope in the next decade and the people that graduated from those schools are being snatched up quickly so they are running out of people. There will probably be some sort of civil service test in the future so the schooling may not be necessary.

I know your son is only 7 but you may want to think closely and do some research into a career with the FAA. I havent even gotten into the Union vs managment issues, work schedules, etc.

 

[daveymark]

Originally posted by: RKS
I've already told my 3 Y.O. he can be anything he wants, as long as it is either:
doctor, lawyer , or engineer (PhD).

asian?

I asked my 4 y.o. what she wanted to be when she grew up, she said "Ice cream truck driver"

 

[TecHNooB]

According to my 4 year old self, I was supposed to be a doctor/"scientist"/man in lab coat.

<- Currently an undergrad in engineering.

 

[Martin]

According to my mom, I was supposed to be a pilot at that age...

 

[hypn0tik]

Hahaha. When I was a kid I wanted to be an ambulance driver because I could drive as fast as I wanted and not have to follow the rules.

I am now an EE.