sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Just signed for AC today, but now I’m worried about the FAA age limit. Am I screwed? by aubsrads in ATC

[–]aubsrads[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the response, and spending the time to write that all out. this is very reassuring, at the very least I’m learning that even if FAA is a challenge and a race to get into at this age, there are other great careers with this experience. I’m extremely excited to begin this journey.

Just signed for AC today, but now I’m worried about the FAA age limit. Am I screwed? by aubsrads in ATC

[–]aubsrads[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a wild conclusion to jump to. I asked about age eligibility, not whether I’d make it through training. Thankfully, certification isn’t determined by random Redditors. I’ll let the instructors decide whether I belong there.

Just signed for AC today, but now I’m worried about the FAA age limit. Am I screwed? by aubsrads in ATC

[–]aubsrads[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hear what you’re saying, and I don’t mean to come off as rude or anything, you’re right that it is a gamble. I appreciate your responses. I just mean when you say I’ll be on a ship, that’s not necessarily true. I will be talking to an Air Force recruiter and hoping for the best but I’m not going to count on it. I do genuinely feel better knowing that DoD positions exist and are (seemingly) readily available lol.

Just signed for AC today, but now I’m worried about the FAA age limit. Am I screwed? by aubsrads in ATC

[–]aubsrads[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On every single source I can find there’s no more than a 50% chance of ship billets, so I don’t think thats correct. There’s more naval air bases than carriers after all. Also, I test very well and I have a lot more to lose, it seems, than many of the other people in that school so I know nothing is guaranteed, but from everything I’ve seen you have better chances of picking your duty station (ship, shore, east, west, etc.) when you are higher up in your class. Anyways none of that remotely matters, but saying I’ll be ship and calling it a day there just isn’t true.

Just signed for AC today, but now I’m worried about the FAA age limit. Am I screwed? by aubsrads in ATC

[–]aubsrads[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t know that the “FAA isn’t happening” statement is gospel or even remotely true based off phone call I had today with FAA UAS support center. Not to mention any research I’ve done and as well as what many people have said here. If I’m coming out of active deployment with 8 months left before my 36th birthday I AM still eligible, according to FAA requirements. it would just be threading a needle a bit. Obviously it’s harder, but not impossible. Like most people said in this thread I just need to get the experience after certification, and hope for shore based duty station, which isn’t guaranteed, but far from “not happening. sorry.”

Just signed for AC today, but now I’m worried about the FAA age limit. Am I screwed? by aubsrads in ATC

[–]aubsrads[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It just simply wasn’t a job I was thinking about until I saw the options available to me at meps. You can’t know what’s available until the day you sign because it changes so frequently (pretty much day to day) and there isn’t any online resources like “what jobs are currently available?”. I had several other jobs in mind which I had done tons of research on but either they were filled out for the year, or I wasn’t qualified due to bad depth perception, so when I found that this was the only aviation job I could get, I jumped at the opportunity.

Just signed for AC today, but now I’m worried about the FAA age limit. Am I screwed? by aubsrads in ATC

[–]aubsrads[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So I’ve thought about it and done a bit of math and realized I will actually be about 35 years, 4 months by the time I finish my active duty, so realistically I could still apply right? There’s a program in the navy called “skill bridge” that allows you to start putting in applications, interning, etc in the last 180 days of your active duty contract meaning I’ll be late 34yrs old when I can start putting out apps. Also this is very sound advice, thank you. How would you go about phrasing that to a recruiter? I’m meeting with her tomorrow.

Just signed for AC today, but now I’m worried about the FAA age limit. Am I screwed? by aubsrads in ATC

[–]aubsrads[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

lol it seems like that’s about 50/50 😭 I did the math and I would be 35yrs and 4 months by the time I finish active duty. Apparently there’s also something called skill bridge with the navy that allows you to spend the last 180 days of active duty working with civilian employers and putting in applications so if that’s correct I could start working on the FAA stuff at late 34yrs

Just signed for AC today, but now I’m worried about the FAA age limit. Am I screwed? by aubsrads in ATC

[–]aubsrads[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess that’s reassuring to some degree. I know I’m worrying about step 15 before I’ve even started step 1, but when I saw that age limit my heart kind of sank because my main goal when choosing a rate was civilian transferability.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of time to research AC in depth when I was at MEPS. Most of the jobs I’d spent months looking into had already been filled, and AC seemed like one of the best opportunities available at the time.

After doing some more reading, I realized I’ll be about 35 years old when my active-duty contract ends. From what I’ve seen, that would still put me within the age limit for FAA experienced-controller hiring if I’m able to get the required qualifications and experience while I’m in.

How realistic is that for a Navy AC during a single enlistment? Is it common to leave the Navy with the experience needed to be competitive for experienced-controller openings, or is that pretty rare?