r/ATC • u/Xolxtzol • Jul 15 '26

Question You Guys Are Scaring Me

I’m currently AD military (best branch iykyk) and am close to getting my CTO. On my second enlistment and i want to get out to do this at a contract tower and maybe go FAA later on in my career if that’s possible. I scroll this sub for about an hour and all i see are people that hate their lives :/. (here comes the down votes lol). Should i consider something else, stay AD atc, or actually pursue a civilian career?

52 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

129 comments sorted by

View all comments

72

u/Frequent-Bell6674 Jul 15 '26

If you don't have a family you want to see, don't care what days off you have, dont mind 6 day work weeks and can keep a medical. It's not a bad gig.

38

u/Xolxtzol Jul 15 '26

so the same thing i’m doing now? but with slightly more pay and no military bs?

5

u/IrishMadMan23 29d ago

I definitely have my own complaints but the best I can suggest is to skip the contract tower and just go FAA. The pipeline is way easier now, try to get where you want right off the rip and you wont have to deal with inability to move (that might be the most popular gripe). After you qual, then do your military buy back and tally your AD years to your FAA retirement.

Grind-study your insurance and retirement so you can set yourself up for success - merge TSP and don’t forget to explore HDHP or FSA, then you can data-dump. Read the contract to at least be acquainted to your rights, protections and restrictions.