My Union Pacific Journey Begins!

Welcome to my Union Pacific journey! Here's the jist. I currently live in Denver. I was invited to a hiring fair in North Platte, Nebraska by Union Pacific Railroad. I was currently unemployed and I have always loved trains so I bit. I loaded up my family on March 30, 2007 and headed to North Platte. My scheduled time to meet with the U.P. reps was at 2:00 p.m. We were running a bit late but arrived at the hiring fair at about 2:10 p.m. Thankfully, I was still able to get in. I was told that if I was late I would not be admitted. The actual hiring session started promptly at 2:30 p.m. I was in a room of about 60 people who all applied for the same job. We sat and listened to a human resources rep for a good 45 minutes. He discussed the working conditions and painted a bleak picture of life on the railroad. He was obviously trying to get people to carefully consider their decision before proceeding in the process. We then listened to a local manager discuss the life of a railroad worker. By this time some people were already opting out of the process. Next we took a reading comprehension test. Pretty simple if you can comprehend what you read. This test knocked out a few more participants. We took a 40 minute break while they graded the tests. If you take the test and fail you cannot be considered for a job on a train service crew for 6 months. However, there are other jobs you can apply for that do not require the reading test and you can apply for these right away. After we received the results for the test we were given a time to meet with a U.P. interviewer. My time was very late as the interviews were scheduled by last name and mine comes toward the end of the alphabet. I had about an hour and half so I went and ate around 6:30 p.m. I came back at 7:45 p.m. and was finally interviewed at about 8:20 p.m. After the interview I was offered a conditional job offer on the spot. The conditions include passing a medical exam with drug testing, a physical abilities exam and a background check. I was then taken to another room where I was logged on to the U.P. website and filled out additional paperwork online. I was assigned an employee number and told to schedule my exams within 48 hours. I got out of there at about 9:35 p.m. I came back to Denver, scheduled the exams and I am waiting to here if I will pass the background check. In the meantime, I was given a date to return to North Platte to begin my initial training. I am scheduled to return for training at the beginning of June, 2007. Needless to say the pay is $60 a day for initial training and then increases slowly as you move forward. There were 1100 people at the hiring fair and they hired between 180-200 people. 40% of U.P. employees will be retiring in the next 10 years and 90% will be retiring in the next 15 years. There are great opportunities within the company if you can get through the first 3-5 years and handle a very unusual lifestyle. It's not for everyone so count the cost before you proceed!