Milano

Some people love it. Brings a lot of overtime sometimes, and you get to see something different everyday.

Every starting location has a sign in sheet.

I'm excited for you, man. It wasn't long ago you and I arguing about your OPA results. Lol Congratulations on the progress made!

Yes. Everything is Monday to Friday I don't know anybody who's done it but there's rumors that some conductors go to train operator school for four or five months just to get some weekends and then they drop back to conductor lol Please note that you probably won't get holidays off. When I went to school even though we had the weekend and a normal Monday to Friday schedule, we still had to work Labor Day, etc

I think they're equally stressful. It's just different stressors. Thinking about it, it might be a little more stressful to be a conductor because there's a whole ton of things train operator could do that the conductor can get banged in for. There's not a lot that I can think of that a conductor can do to cause a train operator to write a G2. Our partnership on the train is a check and balance. There's 12 specific things, if the train operator does then we're supposed to pull the cord and report it. There's nothing that we do that would cause a train operator to pull a cord.. on one hand you don't want to get your friend in trouble, on the other hand if somebody's watching you're going to get yourself a trouble.

First of all you have your division. A or B. A division is the number trains, B division is the letter trains. Within that division you could go anywhere. You can start at Bedford Park boulevard in the Bronx today, and Coney Island stillwell avenue tomorrow. As extra extra, you're covering the people that are covering the people who book off. There's actually jobs specifically picked to cover people's days off, (RDO relief ) and people's vacations... (Vacation relief) Then you have extra list who covers unexpected absences. Then you have extra extra who covers the unexpected absences of the people who cover the unexpected absences, pretty much. Some places have employee parking. Most don't. The vest in the window is frowned upon by the MTA officially and that's all I'll really say about it publicly. You'll have plenty of down time. If you really need a bathroom break You can request one on the radio, stop your train and run for a bathroom. Just try to remember where the bathrooms are when you ask. Most station agents will give you their key to use their restroom, hopefully all you have to do is run right to one of them near your train rather than go upstairs and run a half a mile to a bathroom... Lol. You will usually have 20 to 30 minutes minimum before your next train leaves. Sometime you only have 8 minutes, sometime you stay on the train and go right back out... But if you pick up the radio and call the dispatcher and say I need a "comfort" then you can have a moment to run to the restroom. Everyone's been where we are and some of them actually remember where they came from.

Some of these been answered... But I wanted to point out... As far as the schedule is concerned, overtime isn't more than an extra hour usually The nature of working on a 100 year old system with 2000 members of the public in tow - that's what brings overtime. Things go wrong; equipment breaks and people get sick or stupid. That's the majority of overtime. MTA will do their best to keep you at 40 hours but nobody can escape getting stuck behind a broken rail for 45 minutes and then hitting traffic the rest of the route. In the beginning there's a lot of board time. This means because they have to schedule you 40 hours, you're coming in whether or not they have work for you. You might sit 3 hours until they assign you a job.. so you'll have 11 hours right there, minimum. Overtime comes after 8 hours in a single day, not necessarily after 40 in the week, so even if you have 11 hours Monday and book off sick the rest of the week, you'll still have that time and a half. Every six months comes the bids and picks. I came out in Sept and won a bid in January. I had a steady schedule that whole month. I lost mine because the person came back, but I have classmates still on their bid. A bid is where you get to pick an open job where someone's out for an extended period - usually due to assault, 12-9 (someone hit by a train) or an illness - or they bid on something else after the pick). They won't jerk you around too much on your regular days off.. meaning if they gave you Monday Tuesday you're going to stay on Monday Tuesday until they have a good reason to change it. They usually won't change your tour of duty, am pm or midnight either. It happens but I would say it's somewhat rare. Another thing that's nice here, they have to give you two consecutive days. They can't give you say, Sunday Thursday off.

Well we've got zero deductible zero coinsurance zero copay. Actually, there's a $100 copay for ER visit. That's about it. I feel a lot better with the pension, even though it's tier 6.. because our government seems to change their mind every 6 years what they want to do with our social security money. That's definitely a rough cut on your pay, but you will get a lot of overtime here If you need to catch up. Does your current job have good paths for promotion? You want to play a little game to see how it would be? Take the cut in pay out of your current paychecks. Put it aside and don't use it. Stick it in savings. See how it is to live on about $900 take home a week.

What's your pension plan and medical benefits like on the current job? That usually answers the question for most people the easiest.

It's school. You're getting books, homework, instructors, tests and quizzes. Some of it's actually in a school building.

First of all, it's up to every person to weigh the risk and rewards.. Living in NJ you will definitely be doing a lot of driving to start out. You're hardly ever going to finish on time here. I live in Orange County NY and I will not take a metro North to work if the job is scheduled to end within 90 minutes of the last train out of the city. I'm driving 1.5-2 hours a day each way and I'm making less money here. It's not necessarily always about money either - but retirement. I'm here for the long term benefits, healthcare and promotional opportunities. You'll have to decide strategically if this will be better for the family long term. I think it will be great for mine but I understand the first few years is going to suck.

Plan on your life being upside down for at least a year and a half. They will schedule you at random locations all week long and you will start early in the week and as the week comes closer to your day off they're going to put you on the jobs that finish you at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning on your day off. Still a good feeling for me, not really stressful other than the sleep schedule and figuring out the commute. The job itself is always great. The people that we work with are mostly great. The schedule and the commute is the infinitely variable thing that just needs to be reconciled with.

It's good for 90 days.. so what happens is... If you don't get into a class in 3 months you need to go for another. Basically just so they can drug test you again and check any updated job history. If you're still there try to find someone who you can exchange phone numbers with... If I didn't do that I wouldn't be working here today... because this person actually called me to say they got their offer for employment - and with a list number higher, they didn't give me mine!! That was a great heads up to have. They ended up in my class. Funny how things work out. 🤷‍♂️

It's all a hassle until you get on a train by yourself. The whole beginning of this thing is a hassle. I don't know if that's by design or through incompetency, but that's how it is. It'll be worth it.

"it's generally accepted that business casual is a relaxed version of formal business wear. For men, that means doing away with ties and swapping suits for slacks, button-downs, and blazers. While for women, knee-length skirts, dresses, smart slacks, and blouses are great choices" Some people don't know what business casual is, so here's a general idea from the Google

This is true. My class began August 1 last year but we're the 7/31 class because 8/1 was Monday

All they really need to do is look at your forum posts. Your sentences are done properly, good formatting proper punctuation... That's all I would need to see to know that you've got probably more education than a lot of the people down here. 😂 Lol I jest - there's actually a lot of really smart people down here. But some of them come from the deep end of the dumb spectrum and it's just astounding lol. Most people have a brain. 🙏

Google the company number or make one up. They're not calling anyone. Don't leave things blank because they might make you do it all over again

Not available online, perhaps a transcript from the school/program that gave you the GED? Not to be a jerk but you should know where your important documents are. Get a safe. Keep birth certificate, SS card, ged, marriage certificate, will, vehicle titles in there. Don't stress if it's really that much a hassle tho - go in with what you got, find that guy Kevin running around and see if he can help you before you get up to the window. Alternatively, call olha and seek guidance from her. And you're right, they do make things needlessly complicated. Welcome to gov't work. When I found out I spent 6 hours there for a drug test that they're only going to send out to lab corp.... I was kind of pissed that I couldn't just go to LabCorp and get it done in an hour.

They don't want your college transcript. Just bring an original GED. If you had a college degree you could bring that instead of a high school diploma or GED. I brought my college degree and they didn't want to see my high school diploma. I know exactly what guy they're talking about and somehow I got on his good side. Maybe I'm an a****** too lol 🫣

Well good luck. And if you become friends with me out there on the road, don't break my heart and get fired for smoking weed. 🫣

Nothing lasts forever. Quick fix might stop manufacturing that product at some point. MTA might start taking hair samples. I don't really care what people do, but I do care about people... It's a good job, and to come here everyday taking an unnecessary chance on termination every day, that's just sad. It's never exciting to see someone take a loss. 🤷‍♂️

The get-over mentality does eventually catch up with people. If that's how you wanna live, go for it.

Thanks Robert Ray 😱

Well that's decent of them 🤠