Education for railroaders?

Question

What and much education does the average railroader today need. what degree would greatly benefit. And is military expericance a plus too?

Answer 1

Being a Veteran is an advantage. Other than that, a high school diploma is required in the U.S.. You must have acceptable communication skills due to the varied circumstances in which you must communicate with different people. When I was hired, we had to pass a variety of exams that tested your mechanical aptitude. Not that we would be working on machines, but they wanted people who could figure things out on their own. Like how do you reverse the direction of a 50 car train using a side track that only holds 44 cars. Things like that. I don't know if they still test for this. As for everything you must know about railroading, as far as I know, it's all on-the-job training.

Answer 2

College is useful for management positions.  High School Diploma is all that is required for transportation jobs.  From all the new hires i've met on NS military seems to be quite valuable in the hiring phase considering around 60%-70% have been in the military.

Answer 3

I suppose it's of value to have military experience in any job hunt.  I know it is of value to me, so I thank you for your service to our country.

A high school diploma is a must for any job that doesn't include "You wanna apple pie with that?" as part of necessary memorization.

Derail is right.  The railroads are looking for intelligent people capable of abstract thinking, who can read, comprehend, process and retain information, primarily.  To this end, you will be given a reading comprehension test.

Education often times has nothing to do with intelligence.  So, if by chance you are an educated idiot, I would consult with the Union Pacific.  With this qualification, you're on the fast track to upper management...

Answer 4

At least it's on the right lines!

Answer 5

The company I work for required grade 12 (Canada) or equivalent.

Although looking at some of the other workers. I would hazard a guess that some have not completed grade 5.

Being ex. military helps as well.