Pros
1. If you enjoy driving a bus and doing it well, MV offers the opportunity. They trained me for (renewing) my commercial license and administered the test as well. 2. When you're working you're almost independent, nobody looking over your shoulder.
Cons
The headline is only half in jest: this company's philosophy really seems to be "Train them just enough to pass the test and get their commercial license, then throw them in the deep end and see if they can learn to swim. If they can, fine; if not, they're not cut out to be bus drivers." This philosophy is manifest in the incredible stinginess with which information is disseminated; management seems to truly believe that information is power, and to give it out freely is to give up that power. Training is thus something of a joke: each would-be "trainer" has his/her own agenda, and no-one thinks of giving a trainee anything resembling a "big picture". For example, buses have three different electronic systems, one for Clipper Cards (the region-wide pass for the greater Bay Area), one for cash and transfers, the other...I'm still not sure just what it does. My "class" of trainees was given one Power Point presentation about how to punch in data, but no hands-on tutoring and no concepts as to how they work and how they're supposed to work together. The paperwork has layers of complexity, and again is thrown at drivers without any attempt at explaining why it's so complicated. Different bus routes have identical numbering, leading to confusion. The ("paddles") delineating what each driver is supposed to do are spread sheets that are not at all easy to read for one with little experience with such things. My first two days driving on my own I was put into buses I'd never driven before; having a driver use a bus he hasn't been "checked out" in is a big no-no. Most of the auxiliary systems --heating, AC, radio, and such--I've had to figure out on my own, with limited success since most don't work anyway. I don't think even one of the buses has an interior intercom in working order. Management is obviously stressed by high turnover (I wonder why?) and trying to get bodies into buses as soon as possible with a minimum of training.