Working for the railroad

[Anonymous]

There's a good compromise, but first let me say that you are describing pretty much what I was going through with my parents way back in the late 1970s. I wanted to hire out with BN out of Seattle or Milwaukee Road out of Tacoma, but they wouldn't hear of it. I didn't want to go to college yet either, so I enlisted in the Marine Corps. I wanted to serve my country. When my enlistment ended four years later, I entered college rather than pursuing a career with BN. Well, that pretty much sums it up.

Now, as to the compromise. Your chances of getting hired by a railroad these days improve if you possess a college degree of some kind. There are several community colleges throughout the country that offer two-year degrees in railroad operations. Here's a list of the schools: http://www.uprr.com/employment/rrdegree.shtml.

[csxengineer98]

first of all... keep this in mind..if you come through the ranks into managment on a railroad...you will always have some sort of a job....now if you come off the street from some college biz managment programe..and get hired on to a railroad in some form of low or middle managment lets say.... when they deside to downsize management..which they do about evey so many years.... the ones that came from the treches will be able to go back to the trenchs....the ones that came off the street..will go back to the street!!!!!....
second....the railroad is not as glamors as you might think it is.... i was the same way as you are now when i was your age...what got me hooked on working for the railroad was one day i saw a train go by and the engineer was reclined back..feet up..just crusing down the line..im like..damn that looks like a fun job... but come to find out...thier is alot of stuff that goes on that i didnt know.. the rules...the paperwork..the constatain battle between mangament and the workes...the long hours...the time away from home/family/friends....the not knowing when your comeing and going..so your life outside the railroad takes a beating..... the list can go on and on.... if given the chance to do it agin..im might consider going into a differnt field... but hindsight is 20/20......
3rd...one big pluse.....the bottome rung of the workforce...(engineers, conductors, MOW personel, mechinical personel) CAN NOT BE OUTSORCED....yet....guy i work with told me the other night that 24 years ago..his dad said about going to work for the railroad... he was like why? and his dad said..keep this in mind...no matter what happens to the economy..no matter if its a deprestion..or a boom....the railroads always worked...so their is some from of job secirty that cant be shiped overseas....
but with they way that the railraods are trying to do more with less manpower...i hate to say it..but by the time your old emough to work for the railroad..thier might not be any jobs needing filling for a while...they are in a hireing boom right now...in a few years that will end..and you wont see any major bigtime hireing for at least 20 years...you might see some small pockets of mass hireing..but not like you are seeing today....
if i where you..i would consider a fallback plan... i would look into other jobs ..i would look into college degrees..and work on getting one... that way you 1..have something to fall back on should you get on the railroad and find out you hate it....or 2...the railroads arent hireing and you can get another good paying job....
just some things to think about
csx engineer

[CSXrules4eva]

Ya know wut do wut makes u happy. I went through the same thing w/ my mother. She didn't think the railroad would pay as much as being a doctor or a lawyer. But i didn't want to do those things. She after 2yrs of arguing about it accepted my decision to become a locomotive engineer. This is because I showed her the application to the conductor program w/ CSX and she looked at the amount which can escilate to 80,000 or more dollars. Right now I'm 18yrs old, in college for my *** degree in diesel technology and, I entend to apply for the CSX conductor trainning program as soon as I turn 21. Beleive me ur parents will GET OVER IT!

[Anonymous]

I had no idea what I wanted to do in High School, but I can tell you that there are a lot of people in University that have no idea what they want to do either.

University is great and all, but I think it's important to have something in mind before you go to school and spend the thousands of dollars and get into debt and still not know what you want to do.

There's nothing wrong (in my mind) with getting out of high school and going to work. Not only will it give you great life experience, but (at least in my case) it will show you how much more you can do with specialized training or a university degree that is specific to the field of work you want to get into.

I went to work right out of high school and tried my hand at a few jobs before I went back to school (which I am back at now), now I am training for something that I know I want to do and make a career out of it.

I think the bottom line I am trying to get across is get into something that YOU want to do, not what all your friends are doing, or what you parents say you should do, or what you feel like you should be doing.

Do what YOU want to do, life is much more enjoyable that way.

[FThunder11]

I'm a 15 yr old kid and im in a pickle, kinda. I'm a sophmore(high school, if ya couldnt tell) and I thinking about careers I want for later in life. Now being that I LOVE trains, I've been thinking about working for the railroad as a conductor and eventually a locomotive engineer? My parents have been telling me that I should go to college and do something else, like go into law or computers or something (i think is stupid) like that. I've been telling them over and over again that I dont waht to do that, I want to go to school get like an associates degree in like business and then go work for the railroad. What do you guys think, I would like some feedback from the older guys since they've already probably had problems like this. Thanks a lot