Pros
Like most things in Canada, if you are average and fit into a neat little box, this might work for you. Obviously it pays well, that is drilled in from day 1. It's hard work and dangerous, again drilled in from day 1. The #1 pro to this training is that you are sent to "Train Camp" for 7 weeks and have your meals and flights and hotel room paid for. And if you are the quiet above average intelligence person in the middle of the room that never draws attention to yourself and yet is Alpha, there may well be a career for you in this unless your part of the 66.9% who never keep the job...
Cons
Now for the cold hard truth: This is not a place to work if you are interested in trains. I know that sounds nuts but it's true, this is a place for people who are very intelligent but put on a really good act of being average and unremarkable AND are only in it for the money. People who like trains are labled as "Foamers". Apparently there is little difference between getting a thrill of being beside a locomotive or riding on the front end vs. being the kid with the glasses from The Polar Express. But what else can you expect from trainers who tell people that they don't want people who are too good OR need coaching! What is considered just right is "delightfully unremarkable" and happen to always fall exactly in the middle of the 1-5 range. I hope your mirror neurons are top notch, you'll be expected to do procedures correctly the first time if you watch one or two people do it. No room for learning while doing, you stand around for a couple of hours and get one shot. If you struggle at anything you end up being singled out and assessed again and again and again until it eventually fries your brain and you mess up. But remember, not everybody gets a personal assessment so if you want to succeed, make sure you coast. And for the love of God don't show initiative, not with FIT or the academic portion, that is if you don't want people to think that you can't handle average...it's not possible somebody could just be dedicated and want to go above and beyond, the concept is so above their heads it comes off as suspicious. *sigh* Apparently there is also no other good jobs out there; there's this or being a Walmart Greeter.... Oh, and it's nice to get a list of other jobs the trainers think nobody is cut out for if they don't succeed at the CN training including police work, air traffic control etc. The academic portion starts out average but ends quite difficult and frankly requires a lot of dedication and thinking outside the box. Ask a lot of questions and you're sure to look like the "special case", irritate the class, freak out of the professor and then do very well on the exam, much to the chegrin of the lot of them. Do it...it's very entertaining. Besides, you could be a half % away from a re-write and be sent home on account of some bull that the hotel made up because, despite the millions of dollars they're making, CN and their staff and their money are a burden. Which brings me to my next Con: Remember what it was like to be 12? Get ready for a blast from the past in that regard if you're placed at the Best Western Airport Hotel. If they think you don't like ANYTHING about them they will abuse the policy for calling CN and add editorials and act like you're a problem, if you make a complaint about anything to do with the service they will report it as an "incident" ...but don't expect them to call in a report if there's an intruder in the middle of the night at the hotel or you get trapped in the elevator for hours. They only call CN after having their egos hurt. Apparently CN staff are like one big happy hour frat party... they can have people from a wedding or a religious cult event hanging from the rafters all hours of the night but if a CN employee has one beer and watches the soccer game, that's considered "rowdy".
