As all of you know, if you have been stalking my blog for more than a few weeks, I had a job interview for a Conductor position with BNSF Railway. Let me update you on that situation. As a reminder, the interview was at the beginning of December, and it was up in Forsyth, Montana. They had positions open in both Forsyth, MT, and Glendive, MT. During the interview process, I told them I would prefer to work in Glendive, if possible. They basically told me to check my email for further updates. I figured that would be the end of the process, but as it turned out, it was just the beginning.
About a week after the interview, I got an email from BNSF, in which they offered me a job in Glendive. The job offer was conditional on me passing quite a few different background checks, in the United States and in Canada. It was also conditional on passing drug and alcohol tests, as well as a physical and vision and hearing exams. Shortly after receiving the job offer, I received several emails containing electronic copies of quite a lot of paperwork. I spent a large part of that week gathering information and filling out paperwork, and forwarding it all back to the railroad. After Christmas they contacted me a couple more times to get additional information for the background checks. The paperwork was not complete until the middle of January. At that point, I received an email from them indicating that the next openings were not until some time in April. They did not give me an official start date, but they let me know when I would likely be starting, pending all the background checks going through.
Last Thursday, a week ago, I received another email from BNSF, again offering me the same job, in Glendive. They let me know all the background check stuff had gone through and I was eligible to work for them. I accepted the job offer. I will start working on Monday, February 28, at 7:00am. Yes, that is just a couple days from now. I got about ten days notice. So now the task at hand is to move myself to Glendive, MT, which is over 800 miles from here. I am packing everything up, and Saturday morning I will stuff everything in the car and make the drive. I estimate that it will take about twelve hours to drive up there, so I plan to leave early in the morning. Once there I have to find a place to stay and get settled. Work is six days a week typically. Monday will mark the beginning of the training period, which will last 15 weeks. Following that, I have to take some exams issued by the Federal Railroad Administration, a division of the Department of Transportation. Upon passing those I will be a certified Conductor for BNSF Railway.
Can you believe that they are going to pay me to ride trains?!
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