Police to Railroad??...good move or not

I am a 12 year veteran police officer. I make on average about 55,000 to 65,000 a year depending on how much extra duty i work. I work 12 hour shifts everday and the rotation is 5 days on 5 days off then 2 days on 2 days off. Rotate days to nights every month. Job security is not a problem but the politics have gotten ridiculous. I am considering a career change while i am still young enough. I am invited to a train crew hire session very soon. My question is this. I CAN NOT afford to have no job as bills are plentyfull and the new house notes comes regular. I am concerned about this furlough thing i keep hearing about. If i stay where i am at i will not make any more money throughout my next 10 years. I work probably on average 60 hours weekly to make what i do now. I am all about hard work and providing for the family. Should i take the train job ?? HELP

The thing about the furloughs: BELIEVE IT! Everything on the railroad goes by seniority. No one can tell you exactly what to expect, but the general situation is that you WILL be furloughed during the first years. Your lay-off money, unless you are on a "guaranteed", extra board is going to be much less than that even of non-railroad unemployment in the "civilian" world. You will spend lots of time away from home. You will have odd days off, never be able to plan, or count on, weekends off. You will miss much of your kids' activities. IF you cannot stand furloughs, money-wise, or bear the thought of being away from your family, not having some[i/] weekends off, then don't do it. From what you have written, you seem to have a good situation with much rest time and time to see your family. The railroad is NOT all huggy-wonderful and little toy trains around a Christmas tree! It is (usually) a very gritty, hard, tiresome JOB with a paternalistic, rough-talking, stressful environment filled with supervisors who are LOOKING for a way to run you off. The railroad is not exactly a mere job: it is a LIFESTYLE that you and your family must adjust to for the long, long haul. Many families don't make it, and bust up due this environment. It is that bad. Can you make a decent living? YES! Are the benefits decent? YES! Is the retirement good? YES! Is it worth it to change, if you already have a career with decent security, retirement, benefits, and a chance to be with your family---even if it is itself a bit "scattered"? IMHO? NO!

Only you can make that decision. If you are doing it because you can't STAND your current job anymore, I'd say go for it. If you are doing it because you've had a fascination for trains since childhood, and think it is "a neat job", D O N' T! It will be like sticking a pin in your balloon! POP! It will burst when you HATE the time away, CAN'T be there for little Johnny's birthday or PTO play, get furloughed every December for several months, get held out away from home "in quarters" and get called for a lousy turn you didn't want to catch.

GF

Thanks for the honest opinion. I am gonna hold out for the special agent position as law enforcement is w
hat I know

upprospect wrote:I am a 12 year veteran police officer. I make on average about 55,000 to 65,000 a year depending on how much extra duty i work. I work 12 hour shifts everday and the rotation is 5 days on 5 days off then 2 days on 2 days off. Rotate days to nights every month. Job security is not a problem but the politics have gotten ridiculous. I am considering a career change while i am still young enough. I am invited to a train crew hire session very soon. My question is this. I CAN NOT afford to have no job as bills are plentyfull and the new house notes comes regular. I am concerned about this furlough thing i keep hearing about. If i stay where i am at i will not make any more money throughout my next 10 years. I work probably on average 60 hours weekly to make what i do now. I am all about hard work and providing for the family. Should i take the train job ?? HELP

PLEASE keep your current job. You will not have job stability for years if you work for the railroad.

Well lets hold on a second are we talking passenger or freight?

The railroad has more than its fair share of politics, as well. No escaping it.

It struck me that most of the arguments that can be said against railroad employment can also be said for police, some even more so like working holidays, etc. One other angle that I didn't hear anyone broach was the possibility of keeping your twelve years invested into your retirement system (providing that it's set up that way) and transferring to another police department that is more to your liking. As a police academy graduate, you are very attractive to many departments in your state as they will save considerable money by hiring you over someone who needs academy training. As your instinct was to seek out a police career, isn't there any other department in your state that might offer this opportunity that might be more to your liking ? The other alternative would be to go up in rank if that's possible, but this also would really take some more familiarization with your current department to know if that would be likely. Where's the politicalization ? Relations on the job, assignments, tours of duty, overtime, details, attaining rank, union dealings, contracts, supervisors, etc. etc. Some things stay, some things don't. Twelve years is nothing to sneeze at. In Boston, you'd be out in 20 years with an 80 % pension of your highest three years providing that you're younger than 45 now. Good luck.

Stay with the PD, if you leave you'll be kicking you ass every day. Yeah there may be a lot of politics and BS, but trust me theres just as much if not more on the railroad.

Thanks to all for the valued input. I have 6 months left to be vested in my retirement at the PD. Although I love the job I cant say as much for some of the employees. I figure I might as well stick it out at least until retirement gets finished. I am in the system with UP for a Special Agent position and thats what I really wanna do ulimately. I am gonna go ahead and go to the hiring session for the Train Crew position just to see what they have to say but probalby wont accept the position. Its too late to cancel the interview now and would show little tact if I just didnt show up. Thanks again.

Stick it out until retirement. then get another job while collecting a pension

Depending on where you live, you might check the different railroads job postings and see if they have openings in their police and special services dept. You're in a perfect position
to find out as you're already a policeman. Find a railroad and from within your department find out who their local railroad cop is and go have a conversation.

You'd probably have a good shot with Amtrak P D in wherever the state was where your academy was in, also. You're in a position to make this recession work for you in this manner now. Aside from Amtrak, I wouldn't recommend going from a municipal or state department to a railroad police agency as your retirement, seniority, etc. probably won't follow you in the private company. The private company may only hire "Railroad Police" also, so your previous academy training may not be as enticing to them as a department who was hiring officers with far reaching powers of enforcement and not just in a company's yard, etc.

55-65K is nothing to sneeze at. There are jobs on the railroad that make considerably more, and there are jobs that make the same or less. And if you want to eventually have a regular job (someday) with regular hours and days off - then you will have to settle for less money (usually).

You mention your new house. You may have to move to keep working. Keep that in mind.

I work in psgr service with a few ex cops. Most of them are realist and know what to expect when dealing with the public. They all seem to like their jobs and really do not gripe about much. Freight is certainly a different ball game on that side I worked with alot of ex military just like a cop would from the top down...

To UPPROSPECT. I was in the same situation as you several years ago. I am a retired officer from the NYPD, 22 yrs and now a officer in Connecticut. Several years ago I had an interested for working for N/S and had applied for a position as a conductor. A recruiter called me for an orientation along with 50 other persons that applied. During my interview with her, she asked to be frank with me and stated "Why was I interested in working for the railroad'. I told her my interest in railroading, possibly making a little more pay than I was,( I was making around $70,000 base salary at the time) and was just looking for a career change. She told me after talking with me that I would be selected to move further on with the hiring process but since she had a genuine interest in hiring me, she really wanted to let me know what I was in for. She stated she was with the railroad for approximately 10 yrs and had become an engineer. After being hired and completing her training, she was always away from home, had to be at work on a moments notice and if the job did not call her, that was considered her day off. Hard way to plan any thing. She stated it was a very good possibility to be away from home several days at a time. She went on to tell me she became a recruiter and was in her second year doing that. She further stated that even as a recruiter she was never home and that this was her last week doing it. She had had enough and wanted to settle down. She never gave an impression as being disgruntled with the job. I gave it a lot of thought and decided to pass on the position. At the time, my children were young and the thought of seeing my family less than I was seeing them now wasn't worth it. Imagine being several hundred miles from home and having to get home in an emergency? And with no vehicle at your disposal? To the people that work for the railroads, I have the utmost respect for them. I give them a lot of credit doing their job. I am no way an expert in any of their positions, but just saw this posting and thought I could shed some light with my experience in the matter. As for you considering leaving the police, yeah I say it every day too. But 12 years is a lot of time you have invested in your career and I think maybe looking for a different department could be the way to go. A larger dept with better salaries and more man power where as you gain seniority, you can get more holidays off and etc. Remember, in most departments here in the northeast, officers collect full pension after 20 years of service and I don't think thats possible to do with a railroad pension. And I know their pensions are excellent. You could always do it after you retire as a officer. A 2nd pension isn't a bad thing! Good luck with your decision and always be safe. I hope you let the forum know what you decided.