Im in the market for a new job. Im looking for a place where i can work for the next 30-40 years of my life that has a good retirement plan. Im sick of busting my ass for a dead end job.
So, of course my first thought is looking for a job with the railways. But how hard is it actualy??? Well, mostly i worry about the types of hours that seem to be involved. Most railway jobs seem to require you to be on call 24/7. How speratic are they with this usualy.
I mean, i dont mind working… im a hard worker and i am currenty working as a machine operator in the corrugated industry. I pick things up fast and in 5 years, i am a better and more productive operator than those who have been there 20 years. Thing is, ive been there for 5 years, and I still get forced to work 6 days a week, and often 12 hours a day.
Now i understand with a probationary period i would of course expect to be working lots of hours with overtime, but do the hours settle down after say 5 years of service??
The only other thing i worry about it durring the day, from 7-3 i am responsible for my son. There is noone else to watch him… Does a situation like this pretty much put working with the railroad out of my life style???
A lot of the rails on the board including myself have spent a lot of time and effort responding to this same question asked a myriad of ways. I would suggest you esearch the board under terms like “Railroad Employment” and similar for some of the responses. Also, research at the Railroad Retirement Board site at www.rrb.gov and the union sites at www.ble.org and www.utu.org can help you learn a bit about the various crafts. Finally, check out some of the large (Class 1) railroad sites which are linked to the RRB site above as many have detailed descriptions of the work. Once you have done those things and have specific questions I’ll be glad to take a shot at them.
Well, you did post it on a saturday afternoon… Kind of a slow time in here…
Your shifts would most likeley be 12 hours shifts but no more, and oncall 24/7/365, missing holidays, special events and occastions. But ya know, they are gonna pay you for it. Maybe somone who works for the RR will be a little more insightful.
Some “12 hour shifts” do end up being longer…but you do get paid for the extra time. I don’t work for the railroad but have a friend that does. Every so often you can get “bumped” by someone with more seniority. It happens. When you get seniority you can bump someone else. About every 30 days it get shaken up. Every so often you get let-go…and get re-hired. Just the nature of the beast. Talk to some guys that work it and get more of the nitty-gritty before you decide. It’s hard work but some of the other benefits are outstanding. They also have an excellent retirement plan.
You didn’t say what you wanted to do at the railroad, and the responses to date have assumed you wanted to go into road service – the transportation department. The 7-3 problem will be a non-starter if you are going into the transportation or engineering departments, or any office job. If you’re going into mechanical – and given your background that’s quite feasible – and you want to work midnight shifts, no one is going to stop you, but you may only have the seniority to hold a relief job that rotates around the clock. Also note that mechanical jobs with three tricks are not common outside of major terminals and large cities. Take a look at the websites for the Class Is at jobs and see what you might qualify for and where they are.
There’s also short line and industrial railroad openings, too.
I have sympathy for your plight in your current job, but that’s pervasive these days in the U.S. I don’t know of any industry or job where you can get ahead while working a 40-45 hour, 5-day job. Railroads are certainly not one of them. It’s not uncommon for me to work 30-50 days in a row before I take a day off, and 14-16 hours a day – and I have an unusually high degree of control over my workload. You might not always “get what you pay for,” but you rarely get something you did not pay for, and getting ahead means you will have to outcompete those with more seniority, experience, or luck, and I know of no way to do that without putting out more and better production than they do.
S. Hadid
p.s. – I’d get rid of your photo showing beer; if that’s associated with you at your job interview your odds of being hired are almost zero.
And you will in the Transportaion Department as well. While you are limited to 12 hours of service…you can still be on duty longer then that. 13, 14, even 16 hours on duty are possible.
Unless you have the whiskers to hold a regular assignment, you will be on-call 24 hours a day. This could last 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, or your entire career.
That eliminates Train Service. With your background (as others have suggested), you may want to concider the Mechanical Department - Car Inspectors, Locomotive Machinists, or Locomotive Electricians. The hours are more regular and travel more limited. However, the positions in Mechanical are also far more limited then it Transportation.
Let’s see here. It looks like you have three things working against you. Two involve the child. You need to be home during the daylight shift daily and you need to be in or near the city the child is in. The last involves the beer in your photo. Not a good reference for an industry which expects a BAC of 0% in a random test and will fire you for beer in the cooler in your truck while on railroad property while picking up your pay check on the way out of town to go fishing.
So if you can find a railroad in you community which needs someone in the mechanical department there may be hope. Even then you can expect to be called out unexpectedly on your days off to work out of town if needed. It is not impossible but it will be challenging. If you mention your responsiblity to your child during the interview that will end your application process as soon as you walk out the door. If you refuse a call for OT during your probationary period account you need to take care of your child that will end your career. If you can have a baby sitter available on short notice you can work with this though.
It is the railroad way. They have been an employer of choice for many many years especially in small communities. Many things have changed in railroad management but innovation works at a glacial pace. Management recognizes they are short of people yet they will not change their policies toward employee flexibility until the system crashes down around them.
So look for a railroad nearby and make an application and follow up on it. You can always turn them down later.
Foregot to add this was my first year with BNSF work get bumped that went on for the whole year then got cut off for 3 weeks (laid off) then a derailment happened got recalled and was forced to be the brakeman on the work train going to the derailment site for a week. My second year work a whole lot and get bumped very little as their were more whiskers under me. my third year work a whole lot more and got bumped (1) time and said thank you because I was having to layoff to go a family fuction insted I know have 48 hours to place. As a trainman on BNSF after you get bumped you have to place somewhere you can hold within 48 hours. Also in my third year I got in the locomotive engineer training after graduation the same thing happens except now you will only have 24 hours, but here is another thing that happens if you are the baby engineer you can be forced anywhere in your seniority districk so it is a never ending battle. I have 5 years with BNSF if traffic drops off I can be cut as a engineer but work as a conductor, but I have 70 whiskers under me as a engineer so it will realy have to drop off.
WOW, it really does sound rough. Im sure the job pays off in the end, and im not afraid of the hours or work… but i does seem a little imposible right now with my child i guess.
As for the beer in my avatar, this has been my avatar i use on every board since i was about 18. Back in the party days. Now, at 24 i rarely drink. Id put myself at 10 beers a month, and thats a month with a visit to MSG to see the Rangers play factored in.
It seems like the railroad may not be an option for me right now being the way i am. I realy dont want to miss my son, and possible other offspring growing up. But, the railroad does sound like a nice money making job in the future, when my kids are grown up, and im looking to spend some time away from the wife
I work in the engineering dept. for U.P. I can’t imagine you doing my job with your current situation. There are only a handful of jobs in which you would be able to work the hours. Odds are that you would never get hired for one of those jobs. You’d have to bid in AND be able to hold that position. It would be tough. Good luck to you.
As for middle management, sales, marketing and the like, it is very un-desirable…I quit UP almost 6 years ago and never regretted it except I miss the sales acomplishment and beating my forcasts. They will transfer you at their whim and make you move regardless of your family situation or wife’s job, the pay is substandard to that in the rail industry when you work for a shipper, plan on frequent nites in the office til 8 or 9 pm…if you home office the phone cn start ringing as easly as 6 am. Plan on away travel overnight 6-10 days a month depending on customer base. Plan on micromanagement and process related BS occupying 40% of your time, little to no extra reward compensation when you beat expectations but a never ending stream of demands for more, annual cuts on your travel budget and having to deal with pretty nasty folks in upper mamangement. The operating dept folks will frequently despise you as they many times view all corporate non agreement management folks all the same while upper level management’s demands and pressure never ceses, you are in a no win position sandwiched in the middle, easily blamed when something isn’t right but almost never rewarded when you do things right. If I had to choose betwen working for UP in Omaha or flipping burgers in someplace reasonably nice for a living I’d have the spatula in my hand.
I had an old aqauntance, the person was a foamer, all he wanted was to work for UP and bugged me constantly, I warned him, but eventually he hired on…In 2 months all I heard was non stop complaining, he resigned inside of a year.
