Norfolk Southern Hiring Process

BigDan wrote:Got my phone call and email yesterday. I go to GA next weekend for conductor training. Anything besides clothes i should bring.

Something to do so you can stay out of trouble. We had several guys go out and drink all the time. One got dismissed and the other few probably weren't far from it. I'm assuming your terminal has told you what kind of gloves, boots, and clothes are required. Take some laundry detergent and laundry bag, pens, pencils, highlighter, notebook or notepad to jot stuff down in class. You can buy that stuff with your NS card you'll get if you'd rather ad head to the Wal-Mart across the road from the hotels. If you go to the gym you can go to LA Fitness an exit down and just tell the person at the desk you're with NS an they'll let you in for free.

How much time to you spend out of class? And how much of that time are you studying?

Plan on being at school for 8 hours, although some days will run up to 10-12, it just depends. I spent a lot of my out of class time studying, but thats sort of a personal drive and not everyone does that. I will say that if you don't study a sufficient amount that your scores will suffer. I mean you're there for work, not for the bar or whatever else. You're being paid, so do the work. Some of it is easy, some of it is a little difficult, it just depends on the person I guess. Its a lot of rules, and its a lot of mechanical aptitude. For those with no mechanical ability, air brakes and those types of things were very difficult it seemed. For those with poor study habits, everything was difficult, especially rules. I always said its a bunch of really simple things, but an overwhelming amount and they have to be in order. You'll see people when you get there after about a week who are struggling and you'll wonder how they ever got there, and wonder why they're there, because they sure aren't concerned with working for NS or the railroad in general. Its pretty amazing, but they're everywhere. Don't be one of them, you'll get someone killed or be killed yourself if they don't run you off.

Man McDonough was a 3 week vacation for me, after the first week i realized it was pointless to do the homework cause they give you all the answers in class and you go over everything you were supposed to do, so I studied on the weekends forna few hours after my roommate who was from GA left and drove home, I went out on the weekends, its not rocket science, the safest answer is always the right answer. Plus I was there in the summer and we had the pool and stuff, it was great

I am headed to an NS hiring session for Elkhart, Indiana. They told all I need is a black/blue pen and a photo ID. I have previous railroad experience so that should help. However, I applied for about a dozen other Conductor positions and it seems that they were first posted three months ago, yet are still available! When do they close these positions? Could it be possible I may need to wait up to 3 months to get hired?

There is no timeline on when they'll close. They'll close when they want to have a hiring session, whether that be tomorrow or next year. Seriously. Sometimes they'll post a job and just let it sit to develop a pool of candidates. They may even end up closing that announcement out as they decide well maybe we don't need to hire anyone after all. There is no rhyme or reason, and if you end up hiring out then get used to it because that mentality will rule your life as long as you're a railroader.

Is there anyway to tell how many people they are hiring on the website?

Nope. NS likes to keep you guessing...about everything.

I have a dumb question about the hang test. Is this done with your feet on the ladder or do you hang by just your arm?

Both feet on the ladder, boot heels "locked" into the sill step, hanging by one arm and giving signals with the other. It's not bad and will probably be the shortest amount of time you ever hang off a ladder as a conductor. Food for thought.

Yeah you just hang with only arms in a ladder, wtf

Dewoc19 wrote:Yeah you just hang with only arms in a ladder, wtf

lol

Dewoc19 wrote:Yeah you just hang with only arms in a ladder, wtf

And that is why I said it was a dumb question.

The test sounded too easy with your feet on the ladder until I tried it.

Thanks

Can anyone give me a time frame from when you take your background check and drug test to when they call you and tell you you're going to school?