As promised, our dedicated new hire teams from across the country have been flooding our site with electronic versions of their Facility Orientation Guides. The guides are being populated on the right side under “Getting Started at Your Facility”.

At your fingertips you will be introduced to your Facility Manager, Training Manager, and a host of support personnel. You will find a directory to access your team of New Hire Sponsors who will help guide you through your transition. The guides will review the FAA Mission and Values, employee expectations, local policies, and a rich historical preview of your new facility. The authors included the most up-to-date and interactive geographical data available, local town favorites, hot spots, real estate options, schools, and childcare choices. If you need to know it, your new hire teams included it in their 2009 Facility Orientation Guide. Check back often as we will be updating this section daily!

Welcome to the FAA! I hope you find it as rewarding of a career as I have. With our New Hire program we are working to provide the information you need to hit the ground running. We want you to have a name of someone you can contact with questions. We also want to help facilitate your networking with your peers. Many employees find that the intensity of the training process leads to life-long friendships.

One thing I do want to remind you is that while we have a national set of rules and procedures, each facility has different traffic needs that lend to subtle differences. In large facilities that are broken into several operating areas, there are even more subtle differences. These will impact how your training proceeds. There will be general answers that apply to all employees but there will be specifics that vary greatly, such as how long it takes to complete training.

Our biggest hope with the day-long Orientation at your facility is that you get a sense that this a career not just a job, that we do value you, and that there are a lot of people who help air traffic controllers get the job done.