***Does anybody work for the railroad?***

[MagicHef]

Originally Posted by Munson

Or do you know anybody that works for them? Do they like working for them, or do they hate it? I'm looking to get into a different line of work since I quit my job at UPS. I'm about to apply for a few different railroad jobs that sound interesting, such as:

diesel engine mechanic
diesel engine electrician
conductor
freight car repairman

All of these are entry level railroad jobs, which would be good for me. They include minimal classroom training, with plenty of on the job training. I think the conductors have to spend more time in the classroom than the others. Out of these four jobs, I like the conductor and diesel engine mechanic the best.

I'm also considering applying for a management position at BNSF. It pays the most, but it also comes with the most initial classroom training(huge negative for me) and the most headaches(unions). And from what I understand, you can't really pick the location you'd like to work at, but I could be wrong. But you also get bonuses, and I think you get an allowance for relocation.

Any comments or advice?


And for anybody looking for a job, there are tons of railroad jobs available all over the country, whether you have experience or not. Here are the sites I've been looking at...

BNSF
CSX
Union Pacific
Norfolk Southern - you'll have to register to see the available jobs
KC Southern

I was very recently a carman for BNSF. I was fired for essentially being a threat to my bosses' job security. I don't know how similar BNSF is to the rest of the industry, but here are some of my observations:

-If you have any type of college degree and decide to go into a craft (non-management), do not let anyone know that you have said degree.

-Go into managment if you enjoy being chewed out regularly and working with peers that are entirely incompetent. You will be encouraged to learn as little as possible about what it is that the workers you are supervising actually do. I literally saw a new supervisor get in trouble for trying to learn about what the carmen he was overseeing did.

-Craftsmen have stress-free, easy, somewhat interesting jobs, make time and a half for overtime, and 2.5x time on holidays. None of those things are true of management jobs.