When I Was Workin’ On the Railroad – Part I, Getting the Job

I graduated from the University of Michigan in December of 1979 with a business degree. My interest was "Information Systems". That was the business school term for software design and programming. I enjoyed it and still work in this area. I failed to get a job through the university’s on-campus interview system. It seems that most of the recruiters who came to the business school were interested in accounting and finance majors which I was not interested in. So, I was out of school with no job and living back with my parents in the Chicago area.

After the holidays were over, my father helped me craft some letters to use in seeking a job to begin my career in software. Since I had a longstanding interest in railroads, I thought I would try to get a software job with one. In 1980, there were still a number of railroads headquartered in Chicago. Most notable were the Santa Fe, the Illinois Central Gulf, and the Chicago and North Western. I sent my letters to all three and threw in the Missouri Pacific for good measure. They were in Saint Louis.

I never heard from the Santa Fe or the MoPac but I did get interviews with ICG and the C&NW. I don’t recall much about the ICG interview but I do remember showing the interviewer some COBOL code that I had written in school. I didn’t get an offer from them.

The C&NW interview went well though I don’t remember much about it, either. I ended up getting an offer for $16,500 per year which I gladly accepted. It was my first professional job.

The hiring process was interesting. In order to avoid any problems in their hiring practices, they put every new employee through certain tests. One of them was an extremely easy math test though it might have been harder for some people. They also gave me a vision test. This is important for personnel who operate the trains. It included a color blindness test. This is when I first found out that I was color blind (at age 22)! This test is also important for train personnel. They said that it was unimportant for me since it was unlikely that I would be operating any trains. They also took fingerprints.

So I started for C&NW the first part of February, 1980 at 400 West Madison Street in Chicago.