Apply as a Train Conductor here. Get your railroader career started by completing a college Railway Training Program. We recognize the invaluable skills and experience that you have gained from serving for your country. That's why we want to be your first choice in a new career outside the military. Skip to main content. A day in the life Our culture is one of hard work, accountability and doing what we say we'll do.
College, university, training or volunteering — find out about your options and what funding is available. Apply for jobs with our advice and sell yourself to potential employers — from creating the perfect CV to giving a great interview. Figures and forecasts for roles at the same level, which require similar skills and qualifications. Some of the information may not reflect the current situation. You would issue tickets to rail passengers and make sure that their journey is safe and comfortable.
It would be important to have a good understanding of rail regulations, safety procedures, fares and timetables. You can build your skills through work, study or activities you do in your spare time. To understand more, have a look at What are my skills? Our Skills Explorer tool will help you understand what skills you have and match them to jobs that might suit you. Entry requirements for courses can change.
Most employers value a good general education. Skip to main content. My World of Work My career options. My career options Learn more about yourself, explore your options and find the career that's right for you. Go to section career options. About Me tool Find careers that match your personality. Option Choices tool Find out where your subjects can take you.
Strengths tool Discover jobs that suit your strengths. Explore careers Discover over job profiles. Skills Explorer tool Learn which jobs match your skills. Industries Explore the different industries you could work in. Learn and train. Learn and train College, university, training or volunteering — find out about your options and what funding is available.
Go to section learn and train. Find free online courses Study, learn and upskill with free online learning. Learning options Explore different ways to learn. Course search Find further and higher education courses and training.
Funding Advice on funding and grants to support learning. I keep my bags packed and ready to go, and when I think I may have to be at work soon I make a few meals and keep them ready in the fridge for when I get called out. When I think I may get called in the next two or three hours, I try to sleep until the phone rings.
Once at work, I get my paperwork together, find the engineer, talk to the yardmaster about what we are going to have to do to get out of the yard and on the road, and then either find the motors to start building our train or swap out with the inbound crew wherever and whenever they show up. Every day is different but they usually start out about like that. There are three types of job for a train conductor, but only two are much different.
Extra and regular jobs are on-call schedules, meaning that you wait until they call you to go to work. Everything is seniority-based, so when you start out you will be the lowest in seniority and on the extra list.
For an on-call man, you can check a list and see who is next in line to go to work. As people are called, everyone moves up the list, and eventually, you will one first out.
They can call at any time, day or night, and your job is to be rested and ready to answer the phone. Whenever they finally call, you will have between an hour and a half to four hours to show up to where they tell you to an get on your train. You will never know when you have to go to work. You can guess, but there is no way to know for sure. You will also never know in advance when you are going to be off work.
For example, if your off days are supposed to be Friday and Saturday, Friday morning you are officially off at 9 am and are back on call again Monday at 9 am.
However, if you are called at Friday morning to go on a two-day trip, you need to report to work and your two days will start whenever you get back from your trip.
Good luck making plans with friends and family. As far as preparing for the day, you will need to have a bag and cooler packed, as well as your essential work gear, and most everyone has rain gear with them at all times. You may or may not be home that night, but usually, you get on a train and go to another terminal to swap out with a different crew, they will then take your train to the next terminal. Depending on the terrain and location you are stationed, your trip can range from hours to all 12 hours, which is the longest shift that the FRA Federal railroad administration will allow a crew to stay on duty and active.
Once you sign out on the computer or with the call office, you start your ten-hour rest period and then wait around at the hotel until you are called again to take a train back to where you started. Sometimes when there is not enough train traffic they will send taxis to take crews home, but that is usually not the case. Once you get back to the home terminal, you either put your train away or swap crews, and head back home before you are back on call in 10 more hours, minus drive time.
This can be any time of day or night, so you may get home and choose to sleep, or stay up and hope that you can sleep later before you are called again. Most people only sleep when their family is busy, and try to be awake to see them before they are called out again. Railroad jobs are not advertised. Usually, people hear about them from a friend or family member, or know about the railroad because they grew up or live around a train yard.
The best and possibly only way to get hired is to apply on the website of the railroad in your area, get on their job mailing list, and then keep an eye on their job postings. A railroad may have a position open far away from you, but if you want to work out of a specific location, you need to wait to apply and be hired at that location only because once you start in a location there is no transferring.
Many people do join the railroad with a college education, usually because they can make much better money out here than they can with their degrees. More often than not however, only a high school education is technically required, but work experience and mechanical aptitude are a plus. Many applicants are drivers, truckers, mechanics, oil rig workers, machinists, heavy equipment operators, etc.
One thing nearly everyone I personally have met has in common is that we hate office jobs, or at least the idea of one, and love some element of nature enough to want to be out in it every day.
0コメント