Published: July 30, 2016
I’ll have to admit, this placement and hiring stuff with the FAA changes so much, I will give the disclaimer that this is mostly uncharted territory in terms of proven methods as far as how all this works.
At any rate, here’s the down-low on how our placement is (supposed) to go down. Sometime late this week or early the next week we will receive a list of 38 openings throughout the federal system we could possibly get to go. At this time, they’re only sending academy grads to ATC level 5-7 facilities, and since I’m in a tower class, I’ll be going to a tower facility.
Thus, our list will include 38 facilities (not necessarily unique, however, there could be duplicates) that the graduates from our class will get to pick from come placement day. The idea is that we’ll get around a week time to figure out what facilities we want to possibly go to from that list of 38, assuming successful completion of the evals.
On placement day, we’ll go into the placement folks and designate our choice from the list based on what facility we want. Also, the order among the class is based on class rank, 100% based on performance. Not only is there incentive to do well to pass, but then after you pass, to get a high rank to ensure you’ll get your pick off the list. Although, I think the odds of the whole class wanting to go to the facility you want is probably below the 25% mark (an arbitrary number I’ve made up while writing this), but I’m still not taking any risks. All bets are off, and I’ll do whatever I have to in order to fight to the top.
After we complete our facility picks, I think we have to do our final per-diem paperwork, and a few other HR related things, and then it’s off to your facility. On that note, you are allocated a certain amount of days to “travel” from here to said facility. The FAA doesn’t “care” about you needing to go home/move/etc, but that’s what your “travel” days are for. So to say they don’t “care” is harsh, it’s just not specifically accounted for, you can work it out how you want. We also are allocated 8 working days (not counting weekends!) that you can take off with pay to move, in addition to your travel days.
At this point, I have no specific idea where I’d like to go or where I want to go (and I really mean that). There are rumors and preliminary guesses floating around about what facilities might show up on our list, but rather than analyze those, I’m just waiting until the real deal list shows up, in my hand, from the placement office, sometime this week (or next).
I also won’t be disclosing or discussing my offered placement list here or on any social media, not for privacy reasons but for personal reasons. I will, however, make sure to let everyone know where I’m going after the decision is finalized and paperwork is all sealed and completed.