Aspen - ASE
- Thread starter rockjvf
- Start date
If your trying to move on after getting checked out at one of these locations. I would go to the easiest, tower only, on the list and get check out ASAP and move on. Getting check out should be your first priority, not the location, unless its like Aspen. Training for a year or more on AG pay would suck! Call each tower and ask their average check out time.
This is terrible advice for so many reasons. You're getting sent to a facility in an expedited hiring process and the academy waived because it needs people, most likely pretty badly. To assume that you will get there and go someplace else in a short amount of time is naive. The common release time right now is 2 years AFTER getting selected someplace. And going to some level 4 tower only isn't going to make you very marketable. Level 6 radar is better than no radar.
Go somewhere where you'll be happy for 5 years and get as many ATC quals as possible.
I highly disagree! Why would you want to go train somewhere for 2 years making shit pay and maybe washout. Go somewhere easy, get CPC and move on. I know of 5 people, in 2 different facilities, that became CPC and ERR/Bid to their next facility anywhere between 1-2 years. Plus if you go to a tough 6/7 up/down and don't make it, your career might be over or NEST. Once your CPC your marketablity is only plus 3 levels anyway. After beinging in this agency you start to realize, it's all about who you know, not what you know. This is just my opinion, MJ might call it naive, I call it being optimistic!
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You could still wash after becoming a CPC at a low level tower anyways and be in the exact same spot, so why not just try for the facility that will make you more marketable to begin with and save yourself the headache of trying to ERR/bid out after a quick check out?
So take a shit level 4 to check out, leave it on fate to transfer quickly? With your claim of marketability at plus 3, that puts you at a 7. Where you'll train for an additional 1-2 years, then wait for your number to be called to move up again. Why not cut out the beginning and just start at a 6/7 up down and take that radar ticket instead of taking the super long route if you don't have to.
The "3 level marketability" that you mention is only for swaps....aren't you going from a 5 to a 10?
As others mentioned, someone can wash from a lower level facility just as easily as someone could wash as a CPC-IT. Having a radar ticket can only help boost your resume once it's time to bid/ERR out of a facility.
I thought the 3 level promotion was to keep us within the pay bands. It doesn't apply going for tower to enroute? Yes, everyone could equally washout. I personally would rather be coming as a CPC from a low level to a high level making CPC-IT pay during training vs going through all the pay raises as a new hire making shit pay. It's not fair, but I didn't make the rules. I'm sure the guy that got hire before me will be pissed when I show up making CPC-IT pay(equal to D3) and they're still on AG or D1.
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The only limit on jumping up in facility levels is when you do a hardship. That is restricted to a maximum of 3 levels above your current facility. (not sure on the rules for swaps)
Terminal to enroute has nothing to do with anything when moving around. When you move to a different level, you always move to that payband. The D-level bands are irrelevant when you become a CPC. When you move up in facility level you get 50% of the difference between your current pay and the new facility's cpc pay on the day you show up. Then you get the other 50% when you certify.
When you downgrade more than 3 levels, there is the chance you'll be above the max cpc band of your new facility, in which case you'd just get moved to the top of the band. That difference depends on locality.