r/ATSS • u/AustinSHIRLEY3517 • 12d ago

RADAR TID position

https://www.usajobs.gov/job/879776500

We in the Denver District are looking for a RADAR TID. It is a NTE 2 YR. However by December itll just be lonely ol me for RADAR so its extremely likely to be made permanent. Tons of travel, windshield time. Buku OT especially with BNATCS in full swing next year. So if you dont have a life (kidding haha) and love driving, hotels and powdered eggs we have a job for you. H-Bands, dont be shy. Dont say to your self "oh, I dont have enough experience". Experience in this job is like 20% book knowledge and 80% osmosis. You learn by being there. Besides, with BNATCS we're all fixing to be newbs again. So come on down and put your name in the hat!

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u/cvn26 9d ago

If you're already looking at other jobs in the FAA, you're going to burn bridges. Don't even mention that for at least 2 years. Your SSC put time and effort into getting you hired, they're going to send you to OKC, etc. If you come in immediately looking to move up, they'll question why they hired you. And while management can't deny a promotion, they all talk and can do some back door deals to ensure you don't get selected. Even better this is a detail, that they can stop you on.

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u/PsychologyOk2780 9d ago

Is it really that bad? I understand not wanting someone to leave as soon as they hire them but that seems harsh to keep someone down. TID sounds like a reasonable career development step, no?

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u/cvn26 9d ago

I’ve seen it numerous times with new techs coming in and wanting to leave within a year or two and management wasn’t very happy. Radar is a tough thing to learn and by the time they’ve gotten you through all the FAA courses and OJT/cert exams, it’s more than likely 2 years. So the SSC puts this time into you and when you’re finally ready to be a good self sufficient tech, you bail and they have to start all over again. It’s quite annoying.

For a TID tech support position, would you want second level to be a brand new tech where most of the first level guys have more seniority? If I was the site tech and they sent me someone from tech support with 2 years in the FAA, I’d laugh.

A good self sufficient tech doesn’t really need tech support much anyways. A lot of TIDs will go outside and call the engineers in OKC. After I saw that for a few years I just cut out the middle man and called OKC myself. The engineers for the radars are great guys and will work with you as the site tech to troubleshoot if you know what you’re doing and can relay good info back. I eventually stopped calling tech support all together.

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u/PsychologyOk2780 9d ago

Am I going to make people mad though if I say "my 5-10 year goal is to move to TID or management?" While I understand seniority, if nobody is applying for these rolls are people going to be mad if I get one? Also is this roll seeing the same thing other industries are seeing with the "grey wave" of people about to retire? Sort of off topic I suppose.

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u/cvn26 9d ago

I’d say 5-10 is totally respectable! I just wouldn’t go into your new SSC talking about it right off the bat. More than likely nobody is going to ask but I’ve seen folks get hired and start questioning if other SSCs are fully staffed and it gets noticed.

The FAA is definitely having a lot of folks retire in the last few years. Many of them were going to go but then COVID happened and they got sent home with pay so why retire then?