Pros
Invest a lot of time training you. My initial and final classroom trainer were fantastic. Middle conductor was terrible and constantly looking for an EEO violator. Not hard work at all. Check will always be good. Some of the "old heads" you worked with were pretty good, but it almost seemed like the younger ones were worse to work with. It is pretty cool having 9000hp at your fingertips.
Cons
Management constantly looking for rules violations and loved to make students an example for the most frivolous stuff. I was written up for walking through a mud puddle and crossing the track incorrectly. I never even crossed the track. Another manager accused my foreman of me of not crossing track correctly even after he said he was to far away to really see us. Coworkers are interested in one thing, getting an early quit, meaning working 7 hours. If you are new and slower, which it to be expected, and you mess up their early quit you will catch holy hell. They will tell you different, but most do not mean it. Once past training, you never know when you are going to work and only get 1.5 hours notice to report. Limits where you can go and what you can do. Married to your cell phone and it better get 100% coverage or you will get written up for that. Dispatch "lost" me and several other students in Cheyenne and had to spend multiple days without any pay even after calling dispatch center. North Platte yard huge and hard to learn where everything is, all the different radio channels, and rules are different in some parts of the yard.