Gilbert B Norman wrote:Today's Wall Street Journal offers a beacon of hope.
While hardly suggesting a return to the "gotta degree, ya gotta job" days of past, an article appearing in the Marketplace section, suggests that a small turnaround in the college job placement market could be in the works.
The railroad industry is noted in the following "brief passage' contained within the article (WSJ website is by subscription):
"The rail industry, in particular, is planning for an increasing number of new hires because of the improving economy as well as a recent increase in retirements following a change in the industry's early-retirement rules. The industry plans to hire 80,000 workers during the next six years.
The change has been a boon for Randy Hunt, who graduated this past Sunday from Duke University, Durham, N.C. Mr. Hunt, 22, joins a management-trainee program at Norfolk Southern Corp. and hopes to be assigned to a rail yard where he will oversee operations as a trainmaster. "I'm not the kind of guy who wants to sit behind a desk for the rest of my life," he says".
Six years ago I was of the eager age of 23 and a newly-minted manager within the Loco Dept at a Class One. I has wanted to work as a railroad manager for as long as I could remember. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I shudder to think about how naive to the cold reality that came with the profession. Unlike most of the other college kids that came on board, I had some throttle time under my belt. I spent my summer vacations working for a tourist railroad in just about every position there is on a RR (Sectionman, brakeman, fireman, engineer, etc....).
I look back on it now and realize that I thought (naively) that my wonderful experience in the family environment of the tourist railroad would carry over to the Class One. When I was interviewed by the CMO on the Stratocumulus Level of the HQ Building, it was more like listening to 45 minutes of fatherly advice rather than a Q&A Session. Six months later and at 0230 in the morning, I found myself being called every 30 seconds over the radio, angry union reps shouting at me about something regarding OT and the phone ringing and some snotty person at HQ wanting to know why are shop counts hadn't been entered in the computer.
After 0530 rolled around and I was sufficently interrogated by the Senior Manager, I was released to go home after 14 hours on duty. I would go directly home and hit my bed with the force of a speeding locomotive (some pun intended). No bite to eat, no catching up on current events or reading the latest copy of the National Geographic. I would sleep for precisely eight hours after which I would do a few basic necessities and then hit the road for another 14-16 hour day. My naivety was evaporating, but it hadn't entirely left the building.
The Class One preached empowerment, improvement and the betterment of all employees. I looked for all sorts of various ways to improve efficiency, reduce workload and save the Company a buck or two. I was doing what I thought any good manager should do; one of the maxims preached from the Book of Capitalism in college was to reduce cost; increase profit. This was not to be at the Company, however. It seemed everytime I came up with an idea, it seemed to 'tread' on about 4 or 5 other manager's territories or areas of responsibility. One thing I quickly learned is that the common mindset was that manager's had to protect (or hoard) the information or the niche they were assigned to...well...manage. It wasn't kosher for another manager to approach them with the notion of sharing and/or collaborating on a project that involved their little corner of the Railroad. How dare I, the young and brash new manager, question these 20-30 year veterans?! Ha! My naivety was almost gone...but there was one more climactic event that wiped it away forever and left a disillusioned and angry twenty-something railroad officer itching for a way to escape to greener pastures.
The proverbial straw that broke the camels back was a slow process...in which I observed the company begin to promote people that had no business, nor the qualifications, to management positions. I watched a guy that worked for me as an electrician jump to a trainmaster in less than two years. He achieved this not by being smart, going to college or an innate ability to solve problems, but by schmoozing with the right people. To his credit, his strategy worked. (And he's recently been promoted again from what I have heard.) Then, when I had about all I could stomach of the Company and its duplicitous nature, in walked Mr. X. Mr. X was a foreman at another loco shop on the Class One prior to coming to my shop. My boss had alot of good things to say about Mr. X, he was smart, he was intelligent and he knew his way around a locomotive. 'Excellent!' was my first reaction and the last of my naivety working its way to the surface. Then, I met Mr. X.
Mr. X, while he could talk a good line, but when it came time for him to turn me over, couldn't tell me the most basic stuff. Were we working on the damaged power assembly? "I don't know." Do we have power for the 0230 Train? "I don't know." Do we have a bonded drive? "I don't know." In the end, for every question I posed to Mr. X, he promptly called the shop foreman on the floor and he ended up giving me a turnover. Great; that's it. I've had my fill of this dog & pony show; I'm through.
I went home, promptly put a 'For Sale' sign in front of my house, sold it in a day and the next night gave my boss my two-week notice and a letter of resignation. When my final day arrived, I felt like Atlas as if he decided to give up the ghost and gave the earth & the heavens the old 'heave-ho'!
Now, i'm back in college...of all places...working on an advanced degree in archaeology of all things. I think my fascination with railroading stems from a greater interest in all things antiquated. While it can truly be said that I grew up working for the Railroad, it also made me realize that you can't live in the 21st Century and work in the 19th Century.
In summation, I must profess a warning to those 22-23 fresh-faced engineering & business graduates that are contemplating a life in the service of the Railroad. You, my friends, will become 'all services rendered', the railroad's terminology for saying they can work you for 14-16-18 and even 20 hours a day. (The longest work day I put in was with the Company; 26 hours with 5 hours sleep and back to work the next day.) They may preach the same things they did to me: the opportunity to grow, problem solve and challenge yourself everyday. The only problems I ended up solving was how to turn out the required quota of locos out of the shop with an understaffed workforce and to get around various policies/procedures that were more hinderance than helpful...and I also became adept at stealing parts from one locomotive to get another out the door. And as far as challenges, the only one I ever faced with regularity was sleep deprivation.
In other words, kids...you've already spent a considerable amount of time & effort getting through college. Don't allow yourselves to be goat-roped into something that makes boot-camp look like a cake walk. Take your degrees and put them to GOOD use!
