u/Wonderful-Peach7889

My partner just screened through for the assessment for a conductor job with CPKC in Schreiber, Ontario. We currently live in Southern Ontario so he would obviously be re-locating up there for this job. Just curious about working for CPKC and how the more remote yard work - is it easy to find places to live? do you get some time off each month? any ideas about timing for potential transfers further south? if anyone has experience working and living there dm me! would love to ask some questions. TIA

Hey all!

My husband has been trying to get into CN for a few months now (since early this year) and I’m wondering if anyone here knows how the HR process works for Ontario? Or better yet, works in HR for CN?

Firstly - I know a lot of people on here hate working for the railroad etc, but I’m not looking for reasons for him NOT to apply, just advice about how best to get in.

We currently live in Belleville and he applied to and interviewed for the TO yard, I believe sometime in March, but was unsuccessful with getting offered a position in the end. He was so disappointed as we felt that since he passed the assessment and had an interview he would have a great shot at actually getting in. We think/ hope he denial was due to the fact that we live too far for the 2-hr maximum call time for the on-call positions as he felt the interview went really well and also has outside experience working with heavy machinery in inclement weather etc.

Since then, he has shifted gears and was looking to get in up in Hornepayne. We have a buddy who works for CN who mentioned this could be a good option as they are always desperate for people up there, so the thought is he could start up north and make the sacrifice for how ever long it takes to get a foot in the door and make a good salary, come home whenever he can to visit, and then eventually put in for a transfer back down south.

He applied recently to a Hornepayne posting but was denied right away and was pretty disappointed. He had updated his cover letter to explain that he would be willing to re-locate to Hornepayne and that he is aware of the conditions of working in a remote area but was still denied within a few days.

We are hopeful that because he has already interviewed once within the last 6 months that the quick denial was based on his application still being “kept on file” in an HR system and that once it clear after an amount of time he will be considered again? Can anyone confirm or deny that this is how their system works??

His hope is to eventually get in with CN and I just want to know if he should just keep applying to TO and Hornepayne any time something is posted, or if the attempts are not worth it at this point. We are willing to keep applying until he gets in if that’s what it takes!

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.