Got a UP hiring invite

Today I received a phone call from the UP to attend a hiring session. A few questions I have are: 1. Is it common for the UP to offer you a job the same day as the hiring session? The reason I ask is at the bottom of the invite they say "those offered a job will need to come back the next day to do additional paperwork." Are they that short on train crews they need to hire asap. 2. Can anyone elaborate on the UTU's attempt to make a single craft out of all of the train service crafts on the UP. I would appreciate any advice from anyone willing to help out to prepare me for my hiring session next Thursday.

Thanks to all who can contribute.

I don't know about the UP specifically, but yeah, typically the railroads have a hiring session where they weed out a lot of the applicants. If you look good to the screener, they invite you back on another day. Right now there is a critical shortage of trainmen across the board on most major railroads.

Unions are a sore subject, you'll have a heck of a time getting straight answers from anyone. IMHO, times are changing and the unions will have to adapt. I don't really think it's possible to have all trainmen considered as a single craft, but the lines are getting blurred with conductors using remotes...another sore subject. I think if the RR companies have their way--there will be conductors in the yards with remotes and hoggers on the road by themselves.

-r

1. Yes, the way the UP usually does it, they call those that "make the cut" the same evening as the hiring session, to invite them back the next day. I do know of instances when they have called folks up to two weeks later, I think that is to fill out spots when someone who was "chosen" drops out for some reason before the training class starts. In my case, they did four days of interviewing to find enough candidates to fill one training class. My session was the last day, and there were 40 of us to start the day. About 10 dropped out as the day went on, so 30 went to the interview (10 minute interview!). I think they were still trying to find about 4 from my group, but I don't know how many made it, since I wasn't one of the chosen few. Just doing the math involved here, it looks like they hope to find one "keeper" out of every 10 they invite to the sessions; at least that was my experience.
2. I didn't think the UTU was pushing for the "single craft", I am under the impression that the railroads are heading in that direction to improve efficiency. I think it is not coincidental that the position you have applied for is "train service", not brakeman, engineer, or conductor.

Good luck! I would love to give you some advice about the interview, but since I obviously didn't do so well with mine, I better leave that to someone who actually got the job.

When I went (Boone area train service) there were about 30 people in our group and the recruiter said she was only going to hire a handfull of us. She had to be across the state the next day though to hire another group of people so she was going to select everyone and do the paperwork all that day, rather than have people come back the next day.