Interview

Well, I promised to get some information about how my interview went so here I am. It wasn't that bad to be honest, though it was very intimidating. My interview panel was comprised of 6 people, the average here is 2-3 people. It could have been worse though, two of the guys where people I had met before and one of those was the individual who originally interviewed me when I joined the company. They had some interesting questions… like they asked if I would be ok in an office environment… I can actually see that being a problem for some people. They also asked things like, "Where did I feel I would have the most conflict if I were to be offered the position?" or "What would I do to help them deal with my lack of experience?" I did tell them upfront that I honestly was not interested in the position in Gillette, but I am still interested in the position in general. Gillette is just too far out in the middle of nowhere for my tastes, and honestly I was afraid it would make DH miserable.

I am currently in Vancouver, BC. It's kinda different I've only been to Canada once before, and then we came up to a specific reason (weekend away w/ DH). This time I'm up here for work reasons. We're looking at some of the bridges we have out here in this territory. The local supervisor has a handful since most of the bridges up here are wood and their quickly degrading in the salt water. I guess his steel ones are too, but he's more concerned with the wood bents. He's also got some REALLY long wood bridges, I believe one is over 148 spans long, granted their short spans since their wood, but still…. He's been up here a lot recently, a little over a month ago the government inspector (I think with Transport Canada or something like that) saw a report on a particular bridge and decided to take it out of service, on a Friday afternoon… the crews spent the whole weekend trying to get the bridge back in service. Lets just say the supervisor says he's lost a lot of sleep over that bridge. Maybe I'll get some pictures added when I get home. We'll see.

Conundrum

I'm not sure what to do… I'm facing an interesting situation. I was invited to an interview for a new position with BNSF last Wednesday… I've agreed to the interview mainly because I know I need the experience, but I’m not sure if I really want the position. I don't know if I'm ready to move on or not. I've only been in the assistant position for 3 months, and I've only lived here in Spokane for 9 months. The position is referred to as a Maintenance Planner, the idea being to coordinate all the maintenance-of-way activities (stuctures, track, and signals). I feel it would be a good developmental move because I would get experience with the other departments in engineering, outside of my stuctures experience. Yet, I think my manager would prefer for me to go into a Structures Supervisor position, and to do that I will need more experience.

I still don't feel comfortable when I'm out with the gangs, I feel like there is sooo much that I honestly don't comprehend. At lunch yesterday one of the gangs is trying to correct some alignment issues on a bridge and they were having a hard time getting their adjustments to stay when a train went over that section… so John (the supervisor) was offering suggestions and ideas for equipment that they might use to help.. I didn't understand a single thing he was talking about… I felt so completely inadiquite. But, isn't now, when I'm young enough that they assume I know nothing about railroading (which is basically accurate) the best time to be learning all this information. After I've been here for 5 years or so I'm sure my gangs would expect me to have a broader knowledge base than I would if I were to go into the Planner position.

On the other hand, I do understand the Maintenance Planner position. Granted there is stuff I'm sure that I will need to learn, but I've been filling in for our planners here in the Northwest and while I'm not great at it, I'm decently adept. And, if/when I get a planner position I'll have my own territory and I'll be there day in and day out, verses here for a week, gone for 6 weeks. I'll get out and meet my front-line supervisors (FLS's), learn their territory, etc. Also, this would allow me experience with other departments, I would get a general knowledge of time frames and time management from the track and signals side which I won't get by staying in the Stuctures department, I only get experience with bridge here.

Again something else I have to keep in mind is my husband… He wants to move, but he's not sure where too… and we both want children soon. Granted everyone is like "Oh you guys are young enough, wait awhile." But, to be honest I want to have them while I'm young and my body can heal quickly. Taking that into account, do I really want to put myself into a situation (as a FLS) where I will be 7 month pregnant responding to an all-night derailment near a bridge of ours? Do I want to be on-call while nursing a 6 month old? I have to think about all these things and it's a bit overwhelming at times. I love my job and I love my life, but before long I'll need to start making some hefty decisions.

Oh, btw the picture is on a bridge at Sandpoint, ID.

MT Group

My case study group from my summer in Fort Worth, TX in the Management Trainee program for BNSF Railway. I'm the one in the white hat, I was the only one who had started work before our training session so I already had my safety gear.

Job status

So here I am as one of those few female rairoaders... though I don't have it too bad. The guys treat me good and I have yet to experience any discrimination... not that I expected any, but one can never be too careful.

This is me in my funky safety glasses waiting for the train outside Greensboro, NC. We were in the yard tower above the Amtrak station.