# What is a good Career change for an Air Traffic Controller?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-career-change-for-an-air-traffic-controller/461247>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 25, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-career-change-for-an-air-traffic-controller/461247 "2008-08-25T21:35:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-career-change-for-an-air-traffic-controller/461247/1 "2008-08-25T21:35:43Z")

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I have a good buddy who has been an air traffic controller for 12 years. He’s finally, done. He doesn’t necessarily want to move out of the Airline Industry but isn’t opposed to it either. The things is, he doesn’t have a 4 year degree. He’s got a slew of certificates, and tons of experience minus the bachelors.

I was thinking some kind of sales or sales management, or perhaps in the airline industry, but I have no idea what that would be?

Any ideas?

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**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-career-change-for-an-air-traffic-controller/461247/2 "2008-08-25T21:58:01Z")

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He should ask on [PPruNe](http://www.pprune.org/index.php).

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**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2008, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-career-change-for-an-air-traffic-controller/461247/3 "2008-08-26T04:48:24Z")

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There are plenty of jobs within aviation they don’t require any specific qualifications. Managament is one of them. The CEO of the company I work for started as an aircraft engineer. He’s now in charge of a group of three companies covering airline, charter, and special mission operations yet his specific qualifications are unrelated. We also have operations controllers, middle management, and airborne radar operators. All of those positions require aviation experience but not necessarily any qualifications.

Edit: PPRuNe is a good place to start although it has a rather lower signal to noise ratio than the SDMB which can be frustrating at times.

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**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2008, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-career-change-for-an-air-traffic-controller/461247/4 "2008-08-26T04:55:36Z")

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Oddly enough, quite a few air traffic controllers find it quite restful to become 911 dispatchers. A friend of mine was an ambulance dispatcher who had to interact with the 911 people and he said two or three of them were former ATCs.

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**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\
**Post date:** [August 26, 2008, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-a-good-career-change-for-an-air-traffic-controller/461247/5 "2008-08-26T10:07:28Z")

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Demolition car driver? I figure after 12 years of trying to keep things from crashing, he would probably derive a lot of pleasure from crashing them on purpose.