- Gamers targeted for air traffic control jobs due to hand-eye coordination and screen time experience.
- Experts caution gaming skills don’t replace aptitude, discipline, and decision-making under pressure.
- Social media mocks the FAA’s unconventional recruitment strategy as ill-conceived and out of touch.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.) is now hoping to lure gamers to solve the air traffic controller shortage.
Yup, you read that correctly, if you’re good at Call of Duty, the F.A.A. wants you! Currently, highly unqualified Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shared a recruitment video calling for gamers to apply to be air traffic controllers, writing in the caption for the post:
YOU can be the future of air traffic control. It’s not a GAME, its a CAREER.
The flashy video begins with the Microsoft Xbox One boot-up screen (which we are sure they don’t have permission to use) and comprises clips featuring professional gamers and streamers playing games like Fortnite and World of Warcraft, asking potential hirees if they “are up for the challenge?” and that they “have been training for this.”
The gaming stations are then swapped out for air traffic control monitors and equipment, implying that it would be a smooth transition for gamers into the gig that promises potential recruits will “make a lot of money” while “keeping millions of people safe.”
Bruh.
Gamers have become the target demographic for several federal agencies, including the military and the Department of Homeland Security, thanks to their hand-eye coordination, quick decision-making while tackling complex situations, and the fact that they can stare at a screen for hours on end.
In a statement about the F.A.A.’s recruitment pitch to gamers, Duffy said, “To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt. Duffy added that recruiting efforts on gamers “taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller.”
Not everyone believes this is the slam dunk that Duffy and the F.A.A. are making it out to be.
When you bring on someone who has gaming experience, particularly with air traffic control, they have an edge up,” said Michael O’Donnell, an aerospace consultant who in the past worked as a senior F.A.A. official focused on air traffic safety. “They’re coming in with a skill set. But it doesn’t replace aptitude, or discipline, or decision making under pressure.”
As you can imagine, social media is weighing in on the matter, and they are clowing at Duffy.
“fired hundreds of F.A.A. controllers in February. now running a recruitment drive in April. “The math here is not mathing,” one person on X (formerly Twitter) wrote.
Another post on the social media platform pointed out that the average age of gamers is 34, three years past the 31-year age restriction for applying for an air traffic controller job.
This definitely looks like they didn’t really think this through, but no one should be surprised by this level of ridiculousness coming from Trump’s administration.
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