Controllers entry level job?

[CT4ME]

Controller- an entry level job?

'Saw a special TV report about FAA controllers being hired off the street with pretty weak requirements. 10,000 to be hired over the next 10 years, with about 6,000 to be hired in the next 5 years. Median pay about $123K. Starting salary of $37K the day they finish the 12-week paid training.
Until recently all controllers were hired from ex-military or CTI training schools. CTI applicants are fully trained (at their own cost). The new policy changes the focus to off-the-street hiring with no experience at all. Weird.
Here's the TV Report
Graduates from schools like this, are being passed-over or seemingly systematically eliminated from consideration.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Mind boggling.

Even by federal government standards.

 

[Jim Logajan]

It wasn't the off-the-street hiring aspect that I found mind-boggling; that's fine if they want to do that. It was the introduction of a filtering criteria unrelated to the skills needed - and applied under the full knowledge that there were students who had already invested time and money that might not have otherwise done so had they been fore-warned.
The FAA now requires air traffic control applicants to take an online, biographical questionnaire as part of the testing process.
Comprised of 63 questions, such as "What has been the major cause of your failures?" and "(how many) high school sports (did you participate) in"?
[...]
In fact, nine out of ten CTI graduates failed the biographical questionnaire effectively washing them out.