I was watching MSNBC or CNN today and they were talking about Union Pacific is hiring many many people. What for I am not sure of. Just to let you future engineers or what ever they are called who drive them. www.uprr.com or 1-888-877-7267 P.S. I am not a recruiter, and do not work for them I am just letting you all know.
From what I understand, they were not expecting the upturn in business that they have had and did not replace people retiring or moving on. For a while they were even borrowing crews from CSX and CN.
I had an interview in march, passed the reading comp test and physical agilty and got an interview. They called me back with an conditional job offer,already filled out my insurace paper work, and union papers and w2. Had my through going over physical and drug test. And I start the April 19 in the D/FW area.
Just curious- What is the definition of a "conditional job offer?" Does this mean that you are more on the order of a temporary employee? Or something else? Boxcab E50
A conditional job offer means that you are being hired on the condition that you must pass the pre-employment physical and drug test. Once those are passed, you enter the training program which includes both classes and on-the-job training. Once passing the training period with the appropriate scores, you are placed into the work force at the bottom of the seniority list...subject to the ups and downs of the railroad industry meaning long hours and little rest, followed by possible lay-offs during traffic downturns. Once some more classes of new hires come in under you, then the lay-offs become less likely. If you have a family, it will test its strength. If you don't have a family, it will probably be best not to start one as the railroad will own you. These are the words of a good friend of mine with 25+ years of service with the SP/UP.
Congratulations "UP's_Ft. Worth....." on the new job. Be sure and keep us posted as to what it's like out there in the "real world" ! Bill
Kevin summed it up for ya. This is how it basicly works: You get hired and UP does a background and physical check on you. You pass both your hired. Then comes the classroom and on the job training. You must pass the tests with a 85 or better. Then you qualify on RCO.Then back to class and if they need ya real bad lets say for a conductor, they'll move you up. You will work 443 days a year. But theres only 365/366 days a year, however federal law says on 8, off 8 or on 12,off 10. I will be at the bottom of the food chain, I work the jobs the others dont want.The March 10 class I was in had 50 folks, 14 of them started on the 22nd of March, the 36 of us start April 19. There will be another class that starts in August or so. I think my hire on date is March 11. The railroad world right now is a boomin. They told us the traffic may slow down is in Xmas till the first of the year time, cause customers dont need alot moved. This hiring session started with applicants in Oct of 03, 3,000 invites were sent out,500 showed up,43 people left because they had it better where they are now or for various reasons,60+ didnt pass the physical agity test and reading comp test, also they looked at how far you were from the D/FW area(we had people from OK, OK City,Durant OK,Tyler TX,Longview Tx and some all the way from Big Spring TX. So I had a little over 260 people going for 50 openings and they picked me. Folks wish me luck.
Good luck and welcome to the railroad family. I have 24 years service in Rail signalling here in Sydney Australia. I'm on call 24/7 every day of the year unless on leave but it gets into your blood. Look forward to hearing of your experiences and what you do on your first day on the job.
UP...MP_234 I wish you luck with the job. I also prayed for God's blessing on you. I trust in Him more than luck. Hope you don't mind. Take care.
You wanna here something interesting? The day we had our interviews, the RCO accident happened in Arlington which spread all over the railroad blog (both fans & employees). While Joe held up a $8000 belt pak, what little did we know what was happening 20 mintues away. I hope that wasnt new hires.
Congrats on your new job! Keep your eyes & ears open, and your wits about you, and you'll do fine! BTW, what did the tests consist of? Just curious.
Bob, the reading comp test looks as if the passages were pulled from rules books, ranging from maintance of way to mechincal. You werent asked to implie the rules, just to make sense of them.Some questions were pulled from the Blue flag rule,Crawling under,over and thru moving euipemnt,about switch stands,prescription and otc drugs on company property,how to hold on to a moving car, and serveral more that i cant think of. Its 20 questions long, you have 30 mintues to complete, its on annoying pink paper. Then its time to do the physical agaitily test. It consits of hand squeezes: you do 3 trials on each hand,starting from 90degrees out and down to your body, then time for the arm curle pull test.You stand up on a platform with a bar in your hands at chest height with no slack, you do 3 trials of that, you have to hold for 3 seconds. Then if your numbers look good your done, but if they dont , then its time for sit ups.To see how many you can do in a minute, I did 40 in that minute. Then they do you numbers again. if they look good, you get an interview. We had several women that made it, one even did 60 sit ups!! Does that help any Bob.
Good luck Ft. Worth sub...I went through all of that about 6 years ago for NS. It's a real tough haul for a while but it does get better. Just keep your cool and listen, listen, listen. Take some knowledge from everyone you meet, sift out what you can use, make it part of your own style and throw away what doesn't work for you. Everybody's different and everybody's got something they can teach you. Above all, enjoy it as much as you can. Best wishes from NY
The class work is all GCOR and Hazmat and Signals type stuff. You dont cover all the GCOR. You have Cardinal rules test,Air brake test,TWC test,ABS signal test, and HazMat test. My OJT starts next week when I pass the final this saturaday.I wont start on RCL till later cuz I was on the lower end of the senority roster.So I may be on a non rco yard job or so.
All of us in New Hire classes 40135 and 40136 are all part of Union Pacific railroad. We all passed the final. My first job is First trick in the bowl yard.
How many sit-ups did everyone else do? 40 seems like alot in a minute LOL any chubby guys get hired in your class?
Trains magazine had a news blurb about UP heading for Meltdown. Apparently, they weren't ready for the UPS traffic and the general traffic increase and so are struggling both to fill jjobs and to get equipment. For instance, they left a train parked just out of West Colton for 2 days with just one engine to keep the Airbrakes charged, because there was no room in the Yard. So, sounds like a boom time, but if they aren't careful, they could run into trouble.
Congrats on the job! Just curious though....does UP charge their employees for wearing the UP logo? (snicker) Sorry, couldn't resist. Russ
