The employment funnel from FPS to FAA is surprisingly strong
In these times where every day seems to carry yet more news of jobs being sacrificed on the altar of AI – Snap being the latest company in that regard – any good news for human employment opportunities should be cause for mild celebration at least.
And this particular piece of good news could signal a major change to how companies, organisations and governments go about recruiting potential employees. CVs may well have to be readjusted to highlight ‘skills’ which, up until this moment, were more likely to be confined to the hobbies and pastimes section, if they were mentioned at all.
The spark for this potential revolution and complete overhaul of employment is the US government which, just this month, launched an ad campaign aimed at recruiting air traffic controllers. Those of you blessed with good recall will be able, despite all the madness and upheaval in the intervening period, to remember back to February 2025 when several hundred Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees were sacked by DOGE (remember that? The Department of Government Efficiency?), exacerbating an already long-running shortage of air traffic controllers.
To try and redress the situation, the FAA introduced a scheme to rehire some former air traffic controllers in May 2025. Needless to say, the situation has not been redressed. Which brings us to this latest genius move which could upend existing recruitment practices, not only in air traffic control, but across various sectors.
In a statement accompanying the launch of the FAA’s new recruitment video, US Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said: “To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt. This campaign’s innovative communication style and focus… taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller.”
So, how does the video seek to achieve this? By aiming specifically at… gamers. After a swift montage of different video game scenarios, it tells gamers: “You’ve been training for this…”. This will probably come as news to many gamers who have spent years shooting things, blowing things up, being involved in high speed car, jet fighter or spaceship chases. Admittedly, some of them may have used flight simulators, so that must count for something. According to the FAA, this is all time well spent. “It’s not a game. It’s a career,” the ad tells them.
This isn’t something confined to the Trump administration. According to the BBC, the Biden administration launched a similar initiative, called Level Up, in 2021. There don’t seem to be any figures on how successful that initiative was, but the fact the FAA is doing something similar five years later, suggests it wasn’t a roaring success.
If I die, I die
The big problem with all this, as far as I can see, is that gamers are more or less innured to the consequences of their actions. If they die or crash a car, plane or spaceship, they might feel disappointment at having ‘lost’ but they can just start all over again. Not so for the passengers on any flight that crashes because they ‘lost’ in their air traffic control game.
Still, as far as the FAA is concerned, that’s something for other people to worry about. Are you worried?
Anyway, to return to the bigger point about recruitment, the focus on gaming skills for some jobs could lead to a bigger emphasis on them in applicant CVs. Although I’m sceptical how applicable they may be in the real world. For example, being recruited as an elite soldier, pilot, world class golfer or tennis or soccer player, racing or getaway driver, criminal and assassin or to a job in the drugs trade, based on your game playing abilities might not be a guarantee of success and untold riches in those fields.
Who knows, though? Perhaps it will work out. I leave you to judge the FAA ad for yourselves. It certainly looks stimulating and fast-paced, although I’m not sure air passengers want to be that excited.
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers