I have an interview in Chicago with Union Pacific for a train service position. The job I have now pays about what the railroad does, I’m not subject to lay off and I have some seniority in a union environment. It ia a 24/7 type operation so even though I have a regular set schedual odd hours are not unusal. Trouble is I don’t much care for the job and it’s 25 years till retirement. Do I leave a secure job for life on the railroad? I would appreciate anyone’s opinion.
If you don’t much care for the job you have then check out the new one. If you have 25 years to go til retirement you’ll get another chance at something else if the RR job is not for you.
If you really want something, you should go for it.
You don’t say how old you are. I’m guessing that with 25 years to go you must be in your 30s. If you are gonna try the railroad you should do it now. It won’t get any easier the older you get. If you get started at least you should be able to hold the right seat in the next few years…
LC
are you ready to work evey 8 hours…working on call at least 6 days aweek…and are you married or have a faimly…keep in mind…this job is very hard on the family life… not knowing when your going to work…or when your going to be home… you ready to work in all kinds of weather with no way out of it untill the job is done…you willing to traval to differnt terminels for work…you think you can stay awak on a train at 3am after only getting a few hours sleep in the first place…this job can be a nasty one at times… im just giveing you some of the bad points up frount… working for the railroad is not all get on the train and ride…and get off and come home… it dose beat the hell out of sitting in an office for hours…and working in some kind of manufactoring job… hardly ever any managment looking over your shoulder…but sping on you in the weeds…but every call is differnt…evey train is diffent… you might be going over the same railroad day in and day out…but its never the same trip…
but you have to ask yourself the questions i put to you…and you have to awnsere yes to them all…especily the family and wife one if you have one…
i was somewhat lucly…my wife met me while i was on the railroad…so she knew what it was like befor we got married… not saying that we dont have problems becouse of work once in a while…but it is realy hard for someone that comes from one field into the railroad workforce that has a family and/or a wife…one guy i work with his wife told him …i dont care what shift you work…but find a reguler shift yard job…or find yourself a new wife…this guy worked 20 years in a mechinshop and it closed up and moved to mexico…so going to the on call never knowing when your home lifestyel was to much for his wife…and it is for alot of them…
if you want to talk 1 on 1 about the job…feel free to talk to me on Yahoo IM …my handle is csxengineer2001
csx engineer
I would say go for it. I had a very similar decision to make here in the uK and had the interview and got the job offer. It meant moving house (wife dogs and cats as well) and we discussed it and set a figure at which the pay would be enough. It was considerably less than I make in this job but…
Unfortunately the best they could offer was about 5K under my drop dead figure (Say 8K Greenbacks) so I didn’t take it but I’m still looking - I think if it had been local we’d have gone for it even at the lower figure.
Follow your heart - it sounds like your wallet isn’t an issue in this job.
good luck
Kev
Well, I am only about 15 months from retirement, and looking
back I wish I had at least seriously investigated some other
lines of work.
So, if you can afford it monetarily, try it! Otherwise 25 years
from now you may be in the same place you are now wondering
“What if …”
Good Luck!
Dennis
[#ditto]! One of my favourite sayings is “Behold the turtle: he progesseth not unless he sticketh out his neck!”
and yeah, Good Luck!
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98
are you ready to work evey 8 hours…working on call at least 6 days aweek…and are you married or have a faimly…keep in mind…this job is very hard on the family life… not knowing when your going to work…or when your going to be home… you ready to work in all kinds of weather with no way out of it untill the job is done…you willing to traval to differnt terminels for work…you think you can stay awak on a train at 3am after only getting a few hours sleep in the first place…this job can be a nasty one at times… im just giveing you some of the bad points up frount… working for the railroad is not all get on the train and ride…and get off and come home… it dose beat the hell out of sitting in an office for hours…and working in some kind of manufactoring job… hardly ever any managment looking over your shoulder…but sping on you in the weeds…but every call is differnt…evey train is diffent… you might be going over the same railroad day in and day out…but its never the same trip…
but you have to ask yourself the questions i put to you…and you have to awnsere yes to them all…especily the family and wife one if you have one…
i was somewhat lucly…my wife met me while i was on the railroad…so she knew what it was like befor we got married… not saying that we dont have problems becouse of work once in a while…but it is realy hard for someone that comes from one field into the railroad workforce that has a family and/or a wife…one guy i work with his wife told him …i dont care what shift you work…but find a reguler shift yard job…or find yourself a new wife…this guy worked 20 years in a mechinshop and it closed up and moved to mexico…so going to the on call never knowing when your home lifestyel was to much for his wife…and it is for alot of them…
if you want to talk 1 on 1 about the job…feel free to talk to me on Yahoo IM …my handle is csxengineer2001
csx eng
I have two peices of advice:
One. Working for the railroad from what I have heard is a lot like the military, not so much in organization, but working conditions - high stress, personalities, long hours, no sleep, etc. etc… There are benefits, some tangible, some not, but this type of job is best if you are young, the question is how young are you?
Two: Stability vs. adventure. I had the same problem when I was trying to decide whether or not to make a career out of the Navy. I once read a wonderfull article by Ann Landers. She was blathering about how poeple ask her from time to time about how did she prepare herself to become an advice columnist, and she answered that she didn’t prepare herself conciously in any way. She went on to say that too often today poeple think of a career in linear terms - you train, then go to work, then retire. If you think of your career in those terms, you will limit yourself greatly. Your career should be the total combination of your experiences whatever they may be. If this is the case, then any opportunity you get to broaden you experiences, by all means DO IT!! A nice thing about railroading is that there are so many diferent aspects to it, you could have almost any kind of experience and still find relevence.
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by ericsp
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98
are you ready to work evey 8 hours…working on call at least 6 days aweek…and are you married or have a faimly…keep in mind…this job is very hard on the family life… not knowing when your going to work…or when your going to be home… you ready to work in all kinds of weather with no way out of it untill the job is done…you willing to traval to differnt terminels for work…you think you can stay awak on a train at 3am after only getting a few hours sleep in the first place…this job can be a nasty one at times… im just giveing you some of the bad points up frount… working for the railroad is not all get on the train and ride…and get off and come home… it dose beat the hell out of sitting in an office for hours…and working in some kind of manufactoring job… hardly ever any managment looking over your shoulder…but sping on you in the weeds…but every call is differnt…evey train is diffent… you might be going over the same railroad day in and day out…but its never the same trip…
but you have to ask yourself the questions i put to you…and you have to awnsere yes to them all…especily the family and wife one if you have one…
i was somewhat lucly…my wife met me while i was on the railroad…so she knew what it was like befor we got married… not saying that we dont have problems becouse of work once in a while…but it is realy hard for someone that comes from one field into the railroad workforce that has a family and/or a wife…one guy i work with his wife told him …i dont care what shift you work…but find a reguler shift yard job…or find yourself a new wife…this guy worked 20 years in a mechinshop and it closed up and moved to mexico…so going to the on call never knowing when your home lifestyel was to much for his wife…and it is for alot of them…
if you want to talk 1 on 1 about the job…feel free to talk t
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98
are you ready to work evey 8 hours…working on call at least 6 days aweek…and are you married or have a faimly…keep in mind…this job is very hard on the family life… not knowing when your going to work…or when your going to be home… you ready to work in all kinds of weather with no way out of it untill the job is done…you willing to traval to differnt terminels for work…you think you can stay awak on a train at 3am after only getting a few hours sleep in the first place…this job can be a nasty one at times… im just giveing you some of the bad points up frount… working for the railroad is not all get on the train and ride…and get off and come home… it dose beat the hell out of sitting in an office for hours…and working in some kind of manufactoring job… hardly ever any managment looking over your shoulder…but sping on you in the weeds…but every call is differnt…evey train is diffent… you might be going over the same railroad day in and day out…but its never the same trip…
but you have to ask yourself the questions i put to you…and you have to awnsere yes to them all…especily the family and wife one if you have one…
i was somewhat lucly…my wife met me while i was on the railroad…so she knew what it was like befor we got married… not saying that we dont have problems becouse of work once in a while…but it is realy hard for someone that comes from one field into the railroad workforce that has a family and/or a wife…one guy i work with his wife told him …i dont care what shift you work…but find a reguler shift yard job…or find yourself a new wife…this guy worked 20 years in a mechinshop and it closed up and moved to mexico…so going to the on call never knowing when your home lifestyel was to much for his wife…and it is for alot of them…
if you want to talk 1 on 1 about the job…feel free to talk to me on Yahoo IM …my handle is csxengineer2001
csx eng
Thanks for the advice csx engineer. I do have a wife and family,am in my 30’s. The irregular hours shouldn’t be too much a burden on the family, I already work weekends and holidays often returning to work after 8 hours off. Of even greater concern is pay day, from what I gather a conductor with a couple of years on makes about what I do now. How long would I endure a reduced salary? Likely hood of furlough? And how would operations differ in Chicago as to other parts of the country?Thanks again for your replys.
You never can tell how things on a railroad, no matter what the home terminal ill be like in 5 years. I hired out on the CNW in the summer of '69. AS I look at the UP operation where I once was (I left for the MIlwaukee Rd and later the South Shore Line in’72) it’s a completely different place. In '69 an old conductor once told me that some day freight trains wouldn’t have cabooses. I thought he was nuts. How could you run a freight train without a hind-end crew, I thought. Now they can run a switch engine like a model train, from a power pack. Railroads don’t really like employees it seems, and I used to think their goal was to become a twenty story office building and a roller coaster, so security will always haunt you.
And then, hiring out in Chicago, is the spector of working Metra assignments. If I recall correctly, UP crews man the Metra jobs. If you become a trainman in passenger service, friction may arise in the home life. You can be completely innocent, and have a problem. Anonymous phone calls from females who may have an axe to grind can raise suspicions at your house. I tried to stay single when I was in passenger service and ended up married. It’s an occupational hazard. Remember, you have 6 hours off and a free blue suit every year.
If you relly want train service, go for it, but think clearly, and then work safely. It’s dangerous out there.
Mitch
weekends and holidays are only part of the issue… you might work 12 hours on the road…get home and be right back out the door on your rest agin… with only a few hours at home… keep in mind…its being called for duty at any time…1 am…1 pm… makes no differance…the phone will ring at any hour of the day…
and railroad work is funny… it might be booming for a few weeks…lots of trains running…and then all of the sudden…drop off to next to nothing for a bit too…its feast or fammon on the rail road… as far as telling you how long you will indure a reduced salary…that is imposable to tell… you might get lucky and work like mad and work as much as you want…or you might be kicked around from job to job trying to make a paycheck… its not uncommon for some of the younger emplyees to mark up on a job…only to get bumped off if it hours or mintes later after takeing it…it has happend to me a few times over the years too… the higher you are up on the senority roster the better you sit… but no way to realy gauge that untill you get the job… life is a gamble…and the railroad jobs are no differnt
csx engineer
surely some railroad men must occasionally enjoy a beer or 6, how is that accomplished with a telephone call always looming
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by M.W. Hemphill
Wow, what a tough problem you have. Do you follow your dream, and accept an enormous risk? Or stay where you are and minimize your risk and wonder for the rest of your life what you missed? Either way you assume risk – not changing is JUST as risky as changing, it’s just a known risk vs. an unknown risk. The unknown risk might turn out to be larger or smaller, and until you make the plunge you have no way of knowing.
It’s easy for me to say “Go for it” to a 21-year-old with no family and no real investment in a job, because he has nothing to lose. But you – well, you’ve got security and seniority, and you’d be pitching those out the window in trade for a vast unknown. You may well discover you hate railroading just as much as your current job, and then you’ll have received zero, nada, zilch for your loss of security and seniority.
I’ve faced a number of similar decision points in my life. I’m into, now, my sixth separate career, and my ninth state. It gets harder every time, both because I have more invested in what I was doing, and because I’m more fully aware of the consequences of both staying and going. I’d like to say that every time I took the big leap, it all worked out wonderfully. Or, that every time I took the big leap, it all turned out terribly. But in fact, it always been some of both, both good and bad, a big equivocation. I’ve given up a lot of good things and bad things each time I changed careers, and gained a lot of good things and bad things. But the columns balance: there’s NO pattern! No track record that would indicate what I – or you – should do.
Perhaps you should look to who you are. Do you want security, predictability, and a stable life at home with your family? Or do you want excitement, adventure, new things? Adventure ALWAYS is expensive, and if you recall the pioneers that explored America and settled it, you’ll recall that a lot of them ended up rotting on
off days…vacation…personal days… but when your on call …you never know when your going to work…so its not wise to be drinking at all while on call…
also… just becouse you might have friday off…dont mean your going to home on friday…you might get a day off…but its not always what you want…i use to have a monday off day on the board i use to work… most of the time…i was home and had it off…but once in a while…i would get called out just befor my day off would start…or still be out roting away at a hotel wating for the call for a train to bring home… i might have had monday off on paper…but i didnt get my time off untill tusday or even wensday!!! if you work through your off day…you get it when you get back in… but that can be days from when you where supost to have the time off…
also you might have an off day…but right befor you go on it…someone older then you bumps you off of it…now you lose that day…and have to find a postion to mark up on…which might have a wensday off day…now you lost the friday free and clear…and have to cannel your plans becouse now your on call agin…
csx engineer
not 100% true on the pay for holidays… yard jobs do get time and a half for working on a holiday…
csx engineer