Lara Campbell – Air Traffic Controller, Airservices Australia
What is your Job? I’m an Air Traffic Controller at Sydney Airport.
What does a normal day look like for you? An 8 hour shift, which will usually involve a mix of positions including ‘Clearance delivery’ which is where we issue the pilots their clearances, ‘ADC’ which owns the runways and issues “cleared for take-off”, “cleared to land” and any other crossings or clearances associated with the runway, and ‘SMC’ which looks after the ground area, ie. Gives push back clearances and taxi instructions either from the bay to the holding point or after a plane lands, clears them back to the bay. After work I will usually go for a walk, do a workout, catch up with friends and do some cooking, go to the beach, or do other hobbies. I love shift work for this reason, it’s a great split and can talk more about it in the preso!
What is your favourite part of the job? My favourite part of the job is the job satisfaction you feel after working traffic. Solving the puzzle that never ends, getting people from A to B the safest and most efficient way. My favourite part of the career is the flexibility that shift work provides. There are also some great perks including a career break which I am currently on which is 3 years at 3/4 pay and then the 4th year completely off, I will be spending that entire year travelling the world, so basically, I’m getting paid to travel which is pretty amazing!!
How did you get to where you are today? I completed an engineering degree at UNSW. While completing my Honours I worked in structural engineering which I didn’t love and, frankly, wasn’t good at. I really wanted to work in transport engineering and I was much better at that, so I started applying for lots of jobs in transport. I also googled Air Traffic Controlling, as I had had a conversation with a girl at uni about it 4 years before at O-Week and the applications were closing in less than 48 hours!! So, I saw it as a sign and I applied for that as well. I figured if I failed, I had a great degree to fall back on, but I ended up getting through and here I am today!
What qualifications do you need to apply for your job? Australian or NZ citizen, to be 18 when you complete the training college and to have completed either a year 12 Certificate, Diploma, Degree or Masters.
What character qualities do you think suit this position? A puzzle mindset, good spatial awareness, remaining calm under pressure, and maintaining situational awareness even under high stress are key qualities, to name a few.
What is involved in the training for your job or for the qualification you gained to get your job? For a tower controller, roughly 10 months at the training college which is a mixture of classroom and then simulator exercises. You learn all 3 tower types: Metro D, Procedural, and Radar, and then get assigned your tower and have 3-6 months on-the-job training there with an instructor until you are ready for check and can work by yourself.
If you could go back and give your younger self some advice, what would it be? Network, network, network. Say yes to things, you never know who you might meet or where the opportunities could take you!
What advice would you give younger girls wanting to start a career in Aviation? Do it!! You never know where it could lead you or where you could end up and it’s so much fun!
