Professional Engineers, Structural Engineers, Beware!
Pros
- Given the cons, none really. When the company is so screwed up, flexible hours and a company gym don't really matter. - They pay you a lot, but then fire you. I'd rather be paid less and keep my job.
Cons
- Mass layoffs in 2018 following mass layoffs in 2016 and others before that, including a layoff in 2002. - Miniscule to non-existent design group, whether in track, signal, or structural design. As an idea, only about 6 engineers handle all the track and terminal design for a 32,000 mile track network. They can barely shuffle the paperwork to get the consultants paid...which is all they have time to do. - CEO and COO are heartless, ignorant, and short-sighted copy cats of Hunter Harrison. Operating ratio is only metric they care about, and even though it is already in the 60s...which is already unsustainable and unrealistic...they have gutted what was left of the actual engineers that the company employs to lower it. - Essentially no real engineering at UP, stay away if you are a PE who wants to combine field work and design experience. All they want are engineers to join their OMT program out of college and manage unionized workers. This makes no sense, because these folks are out of college and add little value to the field compared to an ex-union manager...nor do they have any jobs left in the office to develop their hard engineering skills and plow those skills back into the field. - If you weren't good at engineering or don't particularly like it, and want to do long hours of managing workers and projects, with a consultant providing all the actual engineering, join UP. You won't have a life, you'll hardly have vacations, you won't learn much engineering, and some day, UP will fire you when the Operating Ratio is too high. - Again, remember, they are firing people after several previous waves of layoffs, and gutted what was an already bare bones organization in a time of traffic congestion and service issues. How much worse can it get?
