beanz

6 minutes ago, Newyork4 said:

Dude , everyone has plms, if I would to put this job off cause of  plms, issues, or what ever, I be putting off this job for ever, if You want the job, you do what ever it takes to get the job. Plane and simple , either you want it or not. 

You aren't wrong...I'm not saying it isn't unfair either...I'm just saying that it's what's allowed and i can't knock em for taking advantage of the system the way it's set up. 

1 minute ago, STtoMTA said:

And you just get into the next class after already afforded the opportunity

He paid for the test and has certain rights afforded to him by civil service law. I agree that it isn't fair to people waiting but this isn't a team sport. He(or she) have to do what's best for them within the limits of what they are allowed to do. 

When u come down here there may be a personal situation that causes u to have to resign the job, God forbid, but you'll be grateful for the right to be able to come back up to twice more if necessary.

22 minutes ago, iag48st said:

I was told I can resign three times and return to previous title. After the third time resigning you’re permanently removed from the list. I have to go to HR tomorrow and get exact details. 

You can reinstate your name up to 3 times as long as the list is active. I know people who quit midway through schoolcar and were given the same option. Civil service law.

10 hours ago, iag48st said:

Had to resign today due to being forced into the B division (westchester resident). Going to put my name back on the list and hope to get called for a future class where I’ll be able to be one of the first to pick divisions. In the mean time, back to popping them doors, close to home
 

does anyone know what list numbers are being called for this May class? 

Schoolcar is definitely rough when u live in the Bronx and end up in the B. I live in Riverdale and if i didn't drive i would have the longest shittiest commutes to Coney island, Pitkin yard, east NY (🤢). But honestly since i been out on the road the crew office wasn't that mean to me. A couple times on board i ended up going to stillwell and once even to far rock and another time to bay ridge.....but for the most part i was at Bedford park, 207, 168 or 145.

10 hours ago, Mikeyanthony23 said:

Hey guys, so just started training and I chose B division because it’s closer to where I live, but any advice and pros and cons in your opinion on A vs B division? TIA! 

B division is easier to get through probation but there's more equipment and lines to learn about and more yards to get familiar with. A division is a little more tight assed but there's less trains and lines to learn. Really just comes down to being closer to home because the less u have to travel in schoolcar the more time to get rest and study.

Just now, STtoMTA said:

Remind us of your list number again? And generally it could be from 3 days to 3 weeks 

What's your list number?

6 minutes ago, thegameksk said:

Just received a conditional offer email for Medical May 16. They want me to come in Thrsday at 10. Unfortunately I need documents from my drs that I cant get by then. Is there someone I can talk to about being put on medical hold so I dont waste a day of sick time to go there?

Just come in to start the process and the transit doctor will put u on hold themself.

29 minutes ago, Jericho said:

Noo thanks lol Keep that away from the PM tour.

In the end, past 2000 like the test train jobs and onward are really the realm of the midnight tour. 2000 board and was just a ridiculous way to get PM T/O to pick up midnight jobs when they should just make more midnight board jobs. The latest PM job in the B starts 1900 which is a switching job at MET and I believe one that starts at 1910, but forgot where.

I feel u...for me personally it would work great to do some 9pm to 5am type of tours so i can take my kid to school, sleep while she's there and then pick her up and hang out before going in to work. Other than that i don't want part of PMs at all lol.

6 hours ago, FilippoSironi said:

Pms jobs start from 12 pm to 6 pm now? I thought it was 12pm to 9:59 pm

I wish they had later PM jobs that started at 8 or 9 but none of the jobs I've seen go past 6pm start time on the PMs. At least not on the lines i look. Would work out great for me if PMs went that late.

3 hours ago, Amang1 said:

Thank you man. So I guess it just depends on the luck of the drawer and the timing. I work a rotating 12 hour schedule right now constantly switching between nights and days. Often doing 3 or 4 -12 hour shifts overnight  only to switch to 3 or 4 -12 hour day shifts 2 days later. Sometimes only 1 day off in between the switch. I don't think the switching of the start times will bother me too much being that they're within a few hours of each other and I'm currently switching start times of complete opposite ends of the clock. It's the switching of the days off that'll suck not being able to make plans. 
 

Are the days usually 8 hour days or so they usually run longer? Is it even worth it to drive to work being that you might end up somewhere different?  

Depends what job u get assigned. Jobs can be anywhere from 8 hours to almost 12 hours. U can also have a couple days where u are on board meaning u don't have a job until they send u somewhere. Those days can go as short as 8 hours if u get assigned a job right away or it can be twice that.

17 minutes ago, Amang1 said:

Thanks a lot man much appreciated. I was in there with a train operator who actually told me there hiring so many people he had seniority shortly after training/school. He said he barely spent any time on the extra extra list. 
 

I already have a pretty good union job.  However the money in this blows my current position out the water so I'm conflicted. I'm just concerned about not having any set schedule for a few years and been getting a lot of unclear answers about extra extra list. some say your days off change once in a while some say they change every week. Some say it's not bad at all some say it's terrible lol

The reason u get different answers is because it depends where u land on the totem pole. Some people are lucky like the February 2021 class and land pretty high on the xx list. One of my classmates has midnights with sat sun off which is what he wanted. They were lucky they landed in B division which was extremely short of people. If you end up coming in while transit is short like they did, naturally u will end up higher on the extra extra list and have a little more consistency. 

Its a different story for those getting hired now. There are already a good fifty to a hundred people in front of you in each division on the extra extra list because of the hiring frenzy. You won't be switching tours or RDOs every week, but it can happen. The inconsistency comes in start and end times. You might stay PMs for as long as you are XX and you might even have preferred it, but PM jobs start anywhere from 12pm to 6pm and that's only because they have eliminated 8pm board time which was just mean spirited. 

The job starts out tough but it def gets better. Just have to really ask yourself if it's worth it. 

9 minutes ago, Imhim said:

lol well I know for the B division it was a lot of information packed into a short time and this was a before they added CBTC and route guides to the curriculum. You’ll be fine it really takes applying yourself to make sense of the information that’s being thrown at you! They need ppl so it’s gonna feel like it’s rushed because they’re literally trying to get every body they have on the road lol…Good luck on ya practicals if you haven’t done them already! 

What kind of route guides did they add? The little pamphlets from 2013 or did they make something new?

1 minute ago, FilippoSironi said:

Thats awesome. Keeping the same tour and RDOs the whole time would be amazing! They made it seem like they change your tour and RDOS all the time when XX

Some get lucky like that. Ive had my tours changed but not super often. RDOs more often but not all the time either. Just depends on how short handed they are and where they need people most.

10 minutes ago, trackerjack said:

so usually TOs from "the streets" are usually hot heads / wise guys cuz they don't know the culture in the Hole?

I really hope i don't get a bad experience with an a$$hole that ruins my day when i'm on the road 

 

Toughen up when u get here. Don't take everything TSSs or whoever say too personal or it's gonna ruin your schoolcar experience. Most of the TSSs in schoolcar are good guys, i should know since I've been through it twice and have had nearly all of them for at least a day. They are humans just like us trying to do a job. Some of them have tempers and some of them can be very snobby and sarcastic, but nobody's expectations of you should be higher than your expectations of yourself, so their opinion of you doesn't matter. Let them have their ego trips and their soapbox tantrum moments and let it slide off your back and get to work. Once you finish and are out on your own, you will rarely if ever even see them again.

Once again like i said, most of them are alright. Don't worry too much about other people and develop a tougher skin and you'll do fine.

2 minutes ago, trackerjack said:

thanks everyone for inputing the knowledge on me, much appreciated~

wow it seems that winning bids are quite probable!

- how often can you 'bid' for a vacated pick? is it once a month or only once every 3 months? etc
- if you win a bid, then gets forced to go back to XX, do you have to wait until the next "bidding war" begins again?

thanks again everyone

There are 2 bids per pick. A pick usually lasts around 6 months. If u get forced to xx after the 1st bid, u can still bid again which is what happened to me. After the 2nd bid, however, there is no 3rd. So if at that point u get forced back by a returning TO, u have to stay XX until the next pick.

2 minutes ago, Jericho said:

Adding a bit to what Keikyu said. Even when you finally do get a chance to pick, the jobs and RDOs may actually choose you as you get the scraps of what's left. Which is why bidding on a job may be the best thing you can do for the years to come even when you do get to pick.

A vacancy bid happens after the pick starts and is a list of jobs vacated by people who retired, promoted, quit, or temporarily out on worker's comp, leave of absence, etc. If you want something more stable, bidding on a job is the way to do it. I myself have won three temporary jobs during my time. After having my current job for a month, I'm about to go back to XX as the original train operator is returning from worker's comp.

I won a bid and the person came back before i worked it a single day 😂.

I start another this weekend and I've heard through the grapevine this person won't be coming back for a while 🤞

Haven't been around. Just wanted to check in and report that as of 2 days ago i am off probation finally. Most of our small post COVID induction that remained should be off probation as well. 

8 minutes ago, trackerjack said:

so guys.....assuming you get 2 weeks (after school car and you pay your dues).... can you take off 2 weeks straight?  meaning 5 days + 5 days in a row?  or...... you can only take off 5 days first.....then work.......then take another 5 days off.  Assuming they APPROVE you over the phone right?  Is everything from requests to approvals / denials automated over the phone too? 

The way it works is every week of the year has a set amount of TOs that can take it off. Vacation is picked by seniority. Week of Xmas, week of Thanksgiving, and summer weeks are usually first to go. Then any weeks where school is out like spring break and mid winter recess. 

If there are 2 weeks available in a row that u can pick, then yes u can take them both in a row. Assuming u have the full 2 weeks by then.

3 minutes ago, FilippoSironi said:

ok I understand. Yes I can see it would be hard to go to my home country  for the first few years. I'm still very interested in getting the position, I just want to make sure I know what to expect so I can arrange my life accordingly. Did you start accruing vacation time and sick days while in schoolcar or only after?

They accrue during but you get them in one shot in May for the sick days and October u believe for the vacation days. U also get AVAs which are holidays, those get banked as they happen as long as u choose to save them instead of getting paid for them. Some u automatically get paid for unless u save them using our automated phone system. Taking them is another story n too complicated to get into here. I took 2 AVAs durint a certain portion of my Schoolcar training so it isnt impossible. 

11 minutes ago, FilippoSironi said:

Ok good. Thank you. I was asking because I had a trip plan for next summer to visit my family in another country and I would have to change my plans if I can't get any type of vacation time off for one year.

Yea sorry but it's gonna be very difficult to take a summer vacation in your first year unless it's a short 5 day getaway. The way vacation time works down here is very complicated and sucks but gets better with seniority. U might still be in training next summer and definitely still on probation. I had to miss a vacation to my home country(DR) while in Schoolcar and my wife and kid went alone with her family. 

This job asks a lot of u in the first few years but it gets better and that's what keeps me going.

7 minutes ago, FilippoSironi said:

I mean I'm sure if you just had a beer or 2 on your days off while eating dinner I don't think that would affect you or even come up on any drug/alcohol test. 

Just don't go on a bender the night before work and you will be fine, that's what I tell people. U can have a few beers with dinner the night before and it's not gonna make u fail a breathalyzer unless u decide to have 24 of them and come into work still twisted 😂

Just now, BrooklynN said:

So each shift starts and ends at the final station of each train? Never in between? 

Not unless there's a general order that takes out a section of track for work.

5 minutes ago, FilippoSironi said:

so you get to pick even if you're on the extra list? Yes I plan to pick the B. 

Extra list is something different. When u start, if there is a vacancy in both divisions, the members of your induction class with the higher seniority numbers will be asked which division they choose until the vacancies close out.

Once you are in a division, u will go through Schoolcar and once u pass and are out on the road, u will be extra extra in that division, which means u don't have a set schedule or job assignment.

Extra list is something u can choose to be when u have time and are able to pick. The difference between extra extra and extra list is that when u are extra extra, your tour and days off can change whenever they want to change it. When u are extra list, u don't have a job assignment but u choose your tour and days off and nobody can change them. So extra list will not apply to any of you for a couple of years at least and extra extra won't apply to you until u have completed Schoolcar.

10 minutes ago, FilippoSironi said:

Thank you for this post. I just took pre-employment, drug test this week. So if you live in Brooklyn like I do you can ask to work in the B division and start in south brooklyn or if you're in extra list they could also send me all the way to the Bronx and the A division. That would be a huge difference in my commute and life. I hope for the B division although it's harder. 

Nah u will be one division or the other not both. I would pick the B since u are in Brooklyn. Once u pick a division u can't transfer to the other until u are able to pick a job or unless they draft people to the other division because of need, as has happened in the past.

33 minutes ago, Pete23 said:

Can someone please explain what A & B division is (locations?)? Thanks so much 

A division if u live uptown, B division if u in queens or Brooklyn. 

Also, A division is faster, shorter trains and platforms, much more supervision and the big rookie mistake over there is station overruns because the IRT(A division) used to be 5 car trains. They expanded the platforms just enough for 10 car trains but most of them are tight so your train control has to be 100 percent on point. And oh u have 6 months out on your own before you are off probation.

B division, lots more to learn so Schoolcar is longer, or at least supposed to be..they have been condensing it to rush TOs out. Trains are longer and bigger and not as fast because they are so heavy, platforms are a lot longer, more tower heavy so u have to learn areas of control and a lot more lineups. Less supervision out and about and RCC can't see u at all times like they can in the A.

If u don't mind traveling, my suggestion to a new person would be go to the B. Sure there's lots more to learn, but I've been in both and i feel like as long as u are on point about your lineups, probation will be a lot easier to get through. B division makes better train operators and I'm saying this as someone who has now experienced both in a very short amount of time as a new person in both.

20 minutes ago, kev2112 said:

Greetings all. First off thank you all for your info and insight over the years. It’s much appreciated on my part.  Got appointed yesterday and obviously won’t have my boots in time. Can anyone recommend ones I can wear as a substitute until my real ones come in? Thanks 

Congrats.

Anything u have at home. I wouldn't buy a new pair just to have to put them to the side. They should know u have to wait for them