I Plan To Go To NARS For The Conductor Class Which I Think This Would Be Good To Land A Job On A Class One Or Two Railroad Business.
The Mom And Dad Want Me To Go To The Joliet Junior College To Get An Associate Degree Which I Was Curious As To What An Associate Would Do For Me For A Career In The Railroad And I Have Heard That Some Railroad Do Not Care About A College Degree Is This True?
So how well do you study? How good are you at schooling? If the answer to either is positive, continue to Junior College…and the broader, the more english, arts, history, sociology, the better student you will be and the more interested you will be in many other things…perhaps you’ll find something better to pursue, too. If all you want to be is a conductor, however, go to NARS.
I’m presuming you have a high school degree. Reminds me of being your age around 1963. I read a lot, loved the railroads, but at that time the railroaders were predicting extinction. I wasn’t going anywhere in my large high school and was thinking about being an accountant or pharmacist; from the precise German side of my family I suppose.
“No, you should be an architect, you’re always drawing plans and building those HO buildings”. So they shipped me off to a boarding prep school where I thrived. I devoured the 12 or so books for summer reading and became a semi-juvenile delinquent (anyone remember that?). Went to architecture school and aced the architecture but can’t remember how I pased the other stuff, as I rarely went to the classes. After working in architecture offices during the summers, I knew I wouldn’t go that way and love my job of the last 28 years selling tools and machinery. Go figure!!!
I’d guess the opportunities for white-collar jobs, which your parents seem to reccomend, are there, but there are a lot of MBA’s waiting tables at restaurants right now. As for “global supply management”, it sounds like “the future” but dry, if you know what I mean. I was a surveyor between high school and college and enjoyed the physical , trigonometrical, drafting board mix.
Should’ve continued with surveying (or writing), but George Washington laid off too!!!
It is tough kid. Go for knowledge, get any work experience you can find and carry a knuckle if you have to.
You should take English grammar over and over until you know the rules for capitalization. The railroad migh not care about a degree but they will put a great emphasis on the ability to communicate.