Question for NARS graduates

How long after completing the NARS/conductor course was it before you were offered employment? Also, after being offered employment, roughly how long was it until your start date at whatever location?

How long it takes all depends! If you have a clean criminal record no drinking or drug problems, and do well in class you are pretty much will have a job anywhere you want. The best advice I can offer is have patience when looking I jumped at the first job offer and went to a place that my wife and kid were unhappy. I now am where I want to be but it took two years and a different railroad. So I cost myself all of that seniority to move.

Study Hard!!!!

Good Luck

tenbaker,

I graduate NARS on 17-Feb, got back home and had my conditional offer by 27-Feb, for a start date 15-May... This past Monday 27-Mar, I received my final offer... Hope that gives you some idea... It's not fast, but it ain't exactly slow either... It just requires a ton on patience...

Later...

Thanks for the info. I'm from NC, wanting to get back to the mid-west, is my current location going to hurt me from getting on with the BNSF even if I take the NARS?

Any comments please, thanks in advance.

Even without NARS if you apply for a job anywhere on the BNSF system shows that you are willing to relocate. People do it all the time.
Good luck!...

jz441 wrote:Even without NARS if you apply for a job anywhere on the BNSF system shows that you are willing to relocate. People do it all the time.
Good luck!...

I'm not quite sure that's the case any more. One of the main reasons I went to NARS is because of the trouble I had getting selected for interviews when applying for locations outside of my area. (I did receive an interview invitation for a location in Colorado, my home state, but was unable to attend). When I asked BNSF HR why I wasn't getting invited to interviews, they told me that they choose local folks for interviews first. If they have enough local people that apply, then anybody from outside that locality will not get invited.

If you go to NARS, you won't have to worry about location. They'll let you go to any place that's hiring.

You do not HAVE to hire out with the BNSF. Other railroads take NARS serious. I had job offers from every class one in the country. Just pick where you want to live. Keep your options open.

I am looking forward to NARS's online and home courses they are working on. Sounds neat!

Again, thanks for the info. Has anyone had to quit there current job in order to attend NARS? My employer won't allow the time needed. This is the "big decision" I'll have to make.......

Just a little scary to quit my 14 year career to attend NARS, and not knowing how long it may be before "if" hired on.

Any additional comments are welcomed, thanks

tenbaker wrote:Again, thanks for the info. Has anyone had to quit there current job in order to attend NARS? My employer won't allow the time needed. This is the "big decision" I'll have to make.......

Just a little scary to quit my 14 year career to attend NARS, and not knowing how long it may be before "if" hired on.

Any additional comments are welcomed, thanks

Warning: This may be a stupid idea and I do not recommend it.
Anyway, depending on how thoroughly your current employer checks into such things, you might be able to take unpaid, job-protected leave by claiming it as FMLA leave. Of course, you'd have to dodge any possible requests for doctor's notes, etc., and you would probably be in violation of a conflict of interest clause. So yeah, bad idea.

As for me, I'm waiting until a UP job posting closes at the end of June (only them and NS have posted openings around here right now), and I agree with the advice given on this forum, to seriously consider NARS, if I don't even get invited to this hiring session. I would probably quit my current job to go there, if I had to, since I'm pretty confident I can get by for a while with the money in the bank. Then again, I don't have 14 years in.

That's the biggest issue in my eyes. Sure, the course is pricey, but taking that much time off with no income (nor any real guarantees) is the tough one; it pretty much precludes a lot people who might be currently, gainfully employed and/or have financial obligations. I know I couldn't go 5-6 weeks without a paycheck, and then hope I get a job when it's over. If you can afford to do so, perhaps you should reconsider changing careers.

Ha ha! A great point, Chris.

Of course I can't speak for tenbaker or anyone else, but my situation is that I don't consider my current job to be my "career". Don't tell my boss that, but really I'm just there to do a job and collect a pay check, nothing more. Not very fulfilling to say the least, hence the desire to change gears. I don't believe that this kind of situation is all too uncommon.

At that, I'm willing to bet that currently I don't even get paid as much as, say, a training conductor on a typical short line. I guess I can be, uh, "frugal" when situations dictate. I think being single is helping save $$$ more effectively at the moment

I do agree nevertheless that it is a risky move from a financial standpoint, and that a lot of people don't think they can make it. Hell, in reality I probably can't pull it off like I've been telling myself I can. But you'll never know what result can be realized from taking that risk, unless you take it. (Hey, I know I've been broke and jobless before... ha!)

EricL wrote:Hell, in reality I probably can't pull it off like I've been telling myself I can. But you'll never know what result can be realized from taking that risk, unless you take it. (Hey, I know I've been broke and jobless before... ha!)

You can pull it off... Study hard, score high on the test and you are guarantied a job. Only people who do not take the program seriously don't get offers, but with current system-wide manpower shortage on the BNSF they will take any warm body.

Sorry for the poor wording, I was actually referring to pulling off living with no income for a potentially unknown period of time. Heh. I feel pretty confident about succeeding in the course itself. But thanks for the positive words.

so after NARS you are trained as a conductor, and have been issued the appropriate papers to operate as a conductor right? so why would they not hire you? They wouldn't have to train you, they can train you in their policies and not have to train you on general railroad ops and such.