Head in the clouds: Sophomore Teagen Diallo plans career as air traffic controller
In the entire world, there are approximately five billion jobs. Out of all of those, sophomore Teagen Diallo strives to have one of the most stressful jobs in the world: an air traffic controller. It’s a tough job and requires a lot of work and perseverance, but Diallo strives to follow in the steps of his grandfather.
\tDiallo explained what the job of an air traffic controller was. “It consists of going to a tower out in the airplane field and you sit in a tall room and you listen to airplanes and you tell them where to land, what hanger to come out of, where to leave, where to enter and just making sure they get to the right place.”
Air traffic control might sound like a stressful course to some, but to Diallo, the job seems right at home. “My grandfather was an air traffic controller and airplanes really interested me; the whole concept of it just really interests me,” he said. Diallo explained what inspired him to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. “My grandfather started as a janitor at an airport, and he made his way up to fixing airplanes and then up into air traffic control,” said Diallo, “and that motivated me to see how he climbed up the ranks and ended up being a controller.”
A big aspect of many jobs is the various types of specialties one could have; for example, if one were to go into the medical field, they could focus on pediatrics, internal medicine, etc. With air traffic control, that’s not the case. Diallo explained that it was not about what type of air traffic controller one was, it was about the rank or class one was. “There aren’t multiple types of air traffic controllers, but there are certain levels that you can be; there’s a low class and there’s a high class, and the high class makes the most. It’s really good -- you get more into it.”
\tAny professional job, especially air traffic control, takes a lot of training and time. Air traffic control is no different. Diallo knows the steps he has to take to be successful for the future. “I have to go through four years of college, and then I have to go through a four-year program of training. Once you get in to the training, it’s a low class, so it takes a really long time to get there, but it’s well worth it. I need to finish high school with a high GPA so I can get into a good college, like Purdue and Vincennes, because they have really good air traffic control programs and good aviation programs, so if I can get in there, I can start there and get higher up from there.”
Being an air traffic controller means almost no days off, as well as traveling all around the country. That would be the definition of the job to most people. But to Diallo, this job means much more. Fulfilling his dreams, following in the steps of his grandfather -- all of these reasons lead to the same goal: to become an air traffic controller. No matter how stressful the job can be, Diallo is up for the challenge. “It’s a good challenge,” he said. “I like the challenge of putting everything on the line and risking it all, because for me, I tend to work better in stressful moments, and pressurized moments, and I feel like that’s why it would be such a good job for me.”
Story by Kyle Stout