Pros
Decent pay considering you don't need any previous training. Only needed a GED and there were even talks about removing that requirement. Company matched RRSP and stocks. Depending on how busy it is you may work overtime or work extra shifts(can be good or bad) but at a larger terminal you were never forced to do more work. Dental, health, vision, life insurance benefits offered from day 1. Brand new training facility located in Winnipeg which included free meals and hotel accommodations.
Cons
Biggest con is the work and life balance. New employees once finished with training are typically put on the "spareboard" which means you are randomly assigned to areas where work is needed. This can be anywhere from road jobs (taking freight from city to city) or working at any yards within your terminal. This can also mean being forced to another city or town where they are short workers. There is a 2 hour minimum call to work but often it is hard to predict when and where you may work next. Classroom training is quite intensive with about 8-9 hours of rule book training. Outside of class many people form study groups to help learn the massive amount of material. All tests require a minimum 90% to pass and the railroad signals test is 100%. In total classroom training takes 7 weeks with 2 of those weeks being spent in a very basic bootcamp which teaches basic switching, entraining/detraining, tying on hand brakes, doing up air hoses etc... Older employees who have been with the company for several decades are sometimes hesitant to change and show animosity towards inexperienced employees. Managers on the other hand can be hard to get along with. They often harp on the radio asking where you are and what you've done so far. There are periods of fast paced work and other times where you literally do no work at all for example sitting in a siding for hours waiting for other rail traffic to pass. If working in the yards you literally have a 20 minute lunch break with no other assigned breaks. Obviously this is against Canada labour laws but it's in the employee/employer agreement. I go could go on and on about other negatives with working with the railroad but it definitely is not the cosy job that it once was.
