Never Stop Networking

I retired from the Air Force in February 1997. I had an interest in railroads that went back to my high school days. I decided that my career as a command and control systems operator would dovetail well into a career as a rialroad dispatcher. 

I started sending resumes to BN Railroad while I was still in Germany, to no avail. Fourteen days after my official retirement date I went to work for a company called Sperry Rail Service, as a resume builder. I worked for Sperry for eight months until the Air Force called and asked where did I want my household goods they had in storage sent? 

So, I quit Sperry and had my stuff sent to Fort Worth, Texas. And still got no responses to my resumes. So I took a job in a billiard hall. Then went on "practice interviews" one with American Eagle Airlines as a crew shceduler, they job offered me. Thinking American Eagle would look better on a resume than Wizard's Billiards and Games, I took the job, hated it, paid $ 9.50 per hour and left after three months and went back to work at Wizard's. 

One day a guy walks into the bar with a railroad t-shirt on. I commented on it, he asked if I had family who were railroaders, I said no, he asked where I wanted to work, I told him the Network Operations Center, he said that's where I work. I said, let me buy you a drink. He gave a telephone number for the head of dispatching practices and I guess I caught him on a good day, he referred me to Tarrant County Junior College where BNSF had thier classes. 

I called the head of the program there and within a week I had a hiring package in my hand. Two weeks later I took the most comprehensive battery of aptitude tests I had ever seen, this after 24 years in the military. Bottom line I was accepted and have worked for BNSF as a dispatcher for 10 years now. Bottom line is never stop networking, you never which connection is the one that will pay off.

(Submitted by Mike Gueterman)

Comments

[Waldo Waldman]

I completely agree. As a former combat fighter, I had the feeling after I left the military. "What do I do with my life?"

However, with the help of my wingmen, friends and family, I was encouraged to pursue my passion, motivational speaking. I followed their advice, meet with some speakers and then, like you I found myself doing what I loved almost out of nowhere.