Q&A With Consolidated Rail Corporation Employees

Depends on the role within the company. Dress for the position you are interviewing for it the rule. Most employees are laborers, so khaki's and a nice shirt is more than adequate.

The best part of my job is seeing projects come to completion. My employees take a great deal of pride in the construction and installation of signal equipment and it is always a good day to see it placed into service with few mistakes (if any) and then watch it all operate.

Prior to this year, I would have been very confident. However since Conrail's parent companies are Norfolk Southern and CSX- both of which are changing structurally, it's only a matter of time before cuts and changes will occur here as well... I don't think it will be the dissolution of the company, but who can say when CSX, for instance, has cut their work force in the thousands just this year.

In my department (engineering) the pace changes as projects are introduced. If the project load is lighter- like 6 per year, then the pace is relaxed. In 2015 we had three major projects that all came to a race to meet the completion deadline in the 4th quarter. A lot of overtime had to be spent and a bit of pressure to work quickly to get to where we needed to be on the timeline, but these instances are rare.

Depending on what projects are going on, or what research I am doing for a project (usually about 6 per year) I can be quite challenged/engaged in finding the best items for the job or working to meet a deadline. Other times, I am not necessarily challenged- on these days/weeks it's just about managing personnel and getting the day-to-day tasks completed on time and budget.

Typically I look forward to every work day. Some days are better than others depending on events that occurred during the previous day or night. Being on call 24/7 sometimes nights become sleepless and than can roll into the following work day.