What basic skills are needed to be a successful ATC?

What type of skills do ATC need to be good at?

• I am 14, i am going to high school next year and i want to start studying as hard as i can to become and ATC (air traffic controller) What skills do you need to be great at? What should you study in college to become one? What's a good college for it?

• Answer:

  Multitasking, communicating, simple math and very good at memorizing. To be honest, there aren't many things at the high school level you can take that will help. Its not like we do calculus or algebra while working airplanes. Its just as simple as some people can do the job and others just can't. As for college, look up CTI (controller training initiative) programs. As far as which colleges are good for it, they all count the same in hiring. Nobody looks at your application and says "Gee, this person went to the Harvard of Air Traffic." Its simple a box to check that gives you the ability to actually apply for the job. The quickest and cheapest school is the best school. If it has simulators, terrific, if it has a real live control tower for students, even better. Having the latest, greatest, most expensive simulators doesn't make a great school no matter how a school may sell that to you to justify $100,000 dollars worth of tuition and lab fees. I know the whole, find the cheapest quickest school is VERY counter-intuitive, but if you can get a 2 year FAA CTI degree on the cheap, take it. The wait to get hired is very long. Some take several years. You'll have plenty of time to get a 4 year degree in a backup plan while you wait. At your age, two fewer years before you're hired will be HUGE. Due to Reagan firing all the controllers in the PATCO strike of 1981 all the workforce is coming on to mandatory retirement. The huge wave of replacements is here and will continue for the next 6 or 7 years. After 8 or 9 years it'll slow to an absolute trickle. You want your application in as soon as possible.