Applied on line. 4 hours later, got an email saying I had to complete an online test within 48 hours. Once activated, you get an hour to complete the test. I passed. Several days later, I was invited to accept an interview at a hiring session. The hiring session and interview took place in a conference room at a hotel, just over two weeks after I accepted the invite. 7 people accepted the session, 4 showed up. The company had one opening.
You show up, HR recruiter for the region plays a series of videos and explains the high points of the job. Local manager and crew leader talk about the lower points of the job. That process takes a little over two hours. Then they tell you who will be interviewed and in what order. Group is dismissed to the hotel lobby to wait. Candidates are called in one by one for interviews. The interview goes pretty fast, with the HR recruiter doing the majority of the talking, and typing away as you answer.
The actual interview seemed to go really well. Lots of simple, general questions like "Why do you want to leave your current job?" "Why should we hire you?" etc.
In the pre-interview discussions I got a clear sense of what the railroad maintenance lifestyle would be like, as well as the manager's expectations of his workers. One of which was that if a track breaks in the middle of the night, and he calls people out, he expects them to report to the office within 20 minutes to go fix the track.
I live almost an hour away from the office, so I wasn't able to commit to a 20 minute response time. When asked if I could move closer, my response was perhaps; I would have to sell my house and find a place. Looking back, I think that was the deal breaker.
Recruiter was hoping for one selection and three alternates of the four who showed up. The following day, I got an email that my application was rejected. I'm unable to apply again for the same position for 6 months. Other than our conversation over where I live in relation to the job, I'm not sure what went wrong.