How much weight is placed on post secondary or the lack there of? How about high school marks or is the application process solely weighted on attitude/aptitude and how well you do during the process?
It is pretty much based soley on your aptitude and interview success. You need a high school diploma, but as far as I know you Physics marks or engineering degree have little grounds on your application. Now the actual selection process behind the scenes is a bit of a mystery to most controllers, but this is to the best of my knowledge.
During the training process, are there any breaks aside from civic holidays?
Assuming IFR, while in the "school" you will train Monday-Friday for approximately 6-9 months depending on your location, there will be no pay during this time period. You will get lengthy breaks around Christmas if you're training then, but generally it's civic holidays and weekends only during this time.
If you are succesful in hitting "the floor" you become an employee and begin to get paid (Around $32K per year?) you also will be entitled to vacation time, Lieu days and sick time like any other qualified controller. That being said, while taking a few days here and there is acceptable, generally it is expected trainees will work their schedule (17/11 for most controllers, more on that below)
If someone was from Southern Ontario and wanted to stay there, what are the chances of getting a posting there?
A good chance these days, NavCanadas attitude seems to be to post people to centres/towers where they are from.
How conducive is a career in ATC to having a family (from a woman’s point of view)?
Well it's shift work, but the most common schedule is 17/11, that is seventeen days on, eleven off, and repeat. The most common form of that schedule is: 6/4, 6/4, 5/3 and repeat, so you get 4 days off every week, and your shifts are eight hours, twenty eight minutes long.
Family life is generally fantastic since you are off a great deal of the year, and even day-day life is good because you generally don't have to join the Mon-Fri rat race getting chores done. (Nothing like doing your "weekend" shopping on a Tuesday afternoon)
Some schedules depending on your specialty can be challenging, late evenings quick changes to midnight shifts, but that's generally reserved for guys here and in Gander, most other units have a somewhat more balanced schedule.
How much flexibility is there in the schedule? (Shift trading, etc)
This part is a gem. We are currently able to freely trade shifts with co-workers, and provided we are within the "rules" (no more than 9 days in a row, and 10 hours between shifts) we can trade as much as we want and it will be accepted.
You can also do a "Self- Mutex" which means you can request to work on one of your regular days off in order to get time off on another day of work, provided there is no staffing shortages on either shift.
Any other Q's fire away, thinking of a change in careers?
