Here on the forum, we see a good number of postings from those who are interested in employment with the railroads or have questions about the job positions. Most of them seem to be for the conductor and engineer positions.
What does the railroads look for when hiring for shop personnel, for a shop mechanic, or a electrician or some similiar position? Does the applicant need to already have formal training and experience? Maybe hold a license of some type?
I work in aviation maintenance for a large air freight operator. All of the technicians must hold a valid Airframe and Powerplant license and have five years of heavy aircraft experience, such as DC10, 747, 767, and such to be considered for employment. We then go through mandatory training on each type of airframe we will being working on and all of it’s systems. To work in Europe it is way more restrictive than here in the U.S.
Do the railroad shop forces follow a similar path? Is there a difference between here and in other countries such as the E.U. or Japan?
It all depends on what you want to do , myself I am a carman , and my traing came on the job , as do most of the railroad jobs , it seems they prefer you to know as little as possible so they can train you their way .
All our new guys have been trained on the job like carknocker says. I do believe we have apprentiship programs for our regular shop forces, ie pipefitters, machinst,etc etc. I think the carman is an appreticeship as well but I am not 100% sure.
A few years back, I took a course in the machinist trades, lathe and vertical mill operation, which I found fascinating. The training was at a community college, and while there I met some guys going through a apprenticeship program for Ford Motor Company. So, it could very well be the same for some of the shop forces at the railroads. Some trades, like machinist and electricans, would seem to require formal training and the ability to see if the person has the capabilities, such as shop math and mechanical aptitude, to do the job.
One thing I was curious about was, if there is a job posting on a railroad employment site for, say, a machinist, does the applicant need to have some practical experience. Some companies, such as the one I work for, want to see that you have the ability to do the job before they consider you for hire.
Here at my job, once you are hired in, you can move to another shop or department. For expample, you may be hired in as a airframe/structures tech. and work your way over to avionics. Some times this works out well and at other times not so well, usually because the person may not have the knack for the skills it takes. In most cases, people seem to gravitate to the jobs they are best at.
I’m a retired hogger, but I can say this about shop jobs on AMTRAK. When you visit their employment website and look at the advertised jobs, each job will have a detailed explanation of the qualifications that you are expected to have when applying for the job. IIRC the BNSF(from which I am retired)also lists qualifications.