bus driver

security officer

administrative assistant

vehicle service attendant

facilities maintenance technician

Community Transit

What is the best part of working at the company?
Fantastic benefits, e.g., medical premiums are 1/3 of what other public employees (state) pay, in-house fitness centers, free parking. Up-to-date technology. Extremely wide pay bands, pay higher with less responsibilities that comparable transit agencies in the region.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The culture. There's a chasm between managers, almost all hired from outside the agency; "cult" staff, who believe everything they're told; the few staff who don't-they got excluded from development (internal such as being on interview panels and committees, and external, such as conferences and relevant training); and drivers, who were held to stricter standards and consistently treated as something less by agency upper management. I saw no leaders, only managers, and no empowerment. Staff and junior managers were always waiting to be told what to do and felt that their input did not matter, only what the highest-paid person in the room thought. Managers had no training and it was a badge of honor that some expressed to me, with upper management and HR not concerned whatsoever, nor with the inappropriate actions of some, which caused some great people to leave. One told me that people got the title of "manager" to impress external contacts, and there were one-half of the department classified this way. Staff, who are subject to unprecedented internal "spin" compared to all of my other, much larger employers, did not pursue higher positions, for staying where they were, doing the same tasks that they did when they started, which > 80% did for a decade or more, was comfortable so long as they fell in line. Management did not care, their focus was upward, on advancing their own careers, and to do so, they took all of the visible work - which is well recognized and rewarded by the agency - and left the invisible work - which is ignored and unappreciated by the agency - for their staff, creating a culture of "haves" and "have nots." There is no scrutiny of the agency externally nor internally, and the lack of accountability has led to an indifference to the public as well as to the staff.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It most closely reminded me of high school cliques, but even worse. As an employee, I was never empowered. Rather, I was just told what to do, then the boss would modify it. Think of it like being an administrative assistant, not as a senior staff. My opinions did not matter, they were rarely sought. I was never on an interview panel, despite being in a hiring position in my past. I was only a last-minute addition to a task committee twice in over 15 years. However, I was not a "believer" of all of the spin that staff were subjected to. The folks who were, they got more training opportunities in their first year than I got in my tenure, they were regularly sent to out of state and out of country conferences, they were on interview panels, they were regularly on task forces, though the latter typically had the same people on them...new ideas and devil's advocates were not present, but in a top/down place, it is only what the highest paid person thinks that matters, and they would quickly learn to appease it. These latter folks, being visible, would get recognized for it, where the former people would never get any, but nobody ever thought about how they might feel. They were like Cinderella and Rodney Dangerfield, but the pay and benefits - appropriately called "the golden handcuffs" - were what kept them there, though some ventured off course enough so that they became ex-employees whereas some attention by their managers to utilize their dormant talents may have avoided that fate and the associated costs that came with and after it.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Arrive at the office. Check my email. See what's in the news about transit. Get to work on whatever I'm working on at the moment, which was virtually independent of the rest of the department and mostly independent of the rest of the agency, an invisible role so long as everything I produced went as planned.

If you want to place that ask you to break the law then this is the place for you. They want you to give anybody a free ride even though there are 2 RCW's that prohibit riding a transit bus without paying a fare.No matter how much experience that you have in dealing with the public you are always second-guessed and you are always wrong no matter what the situation is even if you follow the SOP to the letter. The manager that sits behind the desk with very little transit experience decides every situation according to how he feels it should have been handled even though he was not there. You are nothing more than a driving machine with no intelligence in how you operate your vehicle and perform your job. It does have good benefits however that does not make up for being treated like a piece of garbage because the manager thinks he is always right even though he sits behind the desk and you are actually out there doing your job. So if you have intelligence and initiative this is not the job for you. If you are a robot that does not care about how things are done correctly then this is the job for you.

Community Transit is an organization that focuses on its people and their ideas. It promotes collaboration, mutual respect, and teamwork to achieve organizational goals and makes everyone feel like they are positively contributing to the overall mission. The company is a good place to work with a good culture, atmosphere, and work environment. Compensation, company benefits, and paid time off are also incredibly competitive.

Working in IT, I can see how we are constantly trying to improve our infrastructure and services to equip the business with the tools necessary for everyone to accomplish their jobs. This means that everyone works hard, provides ideas, and gets the job done. It’s a fun place to work with great people and hard, rewarding work. With that being said, it is a public agency with a pension, so a lot of people have been with the agency for a very long time. This commitment to Community Transit is great, and that is a positive, but it can make it harder to modernize the workplace and technology with some people resistant to change or to learning a new system or process.

I am currently in my 8th year working for Community Transit (CT), and half of the IT staff has been there longer than that. CT has been one of the 2 best employment experiences of my career. The IT department in particular is tight knit group of professionals. Management, all the way to the Chief Tech Officer, is supportive and available. IT has created a “staff lead” environment where Management is there to facilitate and advise in a way that is non-intrusive on accomplishing actual work. For an agency a small as CT is, we have a robust technology environment that has made us a bit of a trend setter among other regional counterparts.   For example, when the Covid-19 remote work orders came down, we had only minor tweaks to our systems needed to fully enable remote work (these really only relating to increased capacity). The IT environment is nearly entirely virtualized with key cloud hybridization as well. Training and career development is available and encouraged. I have never been told ‘no’ to job relevant training. All in all, IT at CT is a fantastic place to work, and I have no desire to leave. 

I'm still working at Community Transit in an entry level position. The pay is good for the work that I do. Participation in state retirement program and union (for everything but admin jobs) is required - but it's worth it. People/management are nice and there's no toxic leaders. 

However, much of management & the leadership have been in their jobs for way too long, 15-25 years. So there's no room for thinking and doing things outside of the box. There's no recognition of a job well done and when there is, it's measly and not worth the kudos. There's zero creativity and processes are extremely slow. Many tasks and projects can take a long time to complete. Lots of red tape.

If you're looking for stability, good pay and simplicity, this is the place for you. If you're looking to be challenged and excitement, stick to the private sector. 



On a large scale, Community Transit seems to take care of their employees and have big goals for where they are going as a company and within the community. There have been strides to improve work-life balance, ensure a livable wage with good benefits, and significant goals for serving and improving Snohomish County. 

However, at the individual level, there was a lot of confusion about the responsibilities of specific roles. There were people who were given responsibility over tasks or projects, with little to no training or support. Job descriptions did not accurately represent the positions being filled. Management was poor at communicating expectations or providing feedback or requests for information. Even between employees, there seemed to be a lot of distrust in people’s abilities to do their jobs. 

A typical day is split shifts, and there are split days off every week.  There can be as little as a half hour up to  4 hours between runs.  Management is adversarial.  And that is the hardest part of the job.  Every day the drivers go out and risk their livelihood and maybe even their lives  And the company has written the SOP so that everything is always the driver's fault and mgt is never held responsible

I learned so much working for CT.  On the positive side I learned how to handle large vehicles, be alert for anything, and how to deal with the public in almost any situation.

My co-workers were great.  They all worked very hard to do a good job.

There were so many great things about the job.  Driving any size bus in all kinds of traffic and all kinds weather was challenging and exciting.  And I  loved working with the passengers and the other drivers.

What I liked least, being new, were the split shift and hours but that aside, the training was great, I hadn't even driven something as big as a van before hiring on with them and going through their training.  It is very stressful in the beginning but as you become comfortable with the buses and learn the routes it is a very enjoyable job.  I didn't care for the hours at all as it really splits up your day but this leaves time to take care of kids, appointments, shopping or resting in the middle of your day if necessary without having to schedule time off for Dr. appointments, etc.  They also have a physical therapy office onsite to help keep you healthy and work through oncoming issues that may arise out of your work routine.  I really enjoyed working there and the various teams all working together, and the pay and benefits was top notch!

First of all, forget any semblance of a life.  As soon as your done with training your shift will be to check your email at 4:30 each night to see when you work the next day, and you could have as little as 8-9 hrs between shifts.  And believe me, they don't care one bit.  They've been without a new contract for almost two years thanks to management.  It's impossible to get time off without calling in sick which you'll later be told can cost you your job.  They try to dazzle you with fancy leather couches and big screen t.v.'s but that's really only useful for people who have split shifts, which is work 3 or 4 hours, have 5 hours off, then back again.  Imagine spending 13 hours at work everyday.  

I'm taking significantly less money to go somewhere else it's so bad.  If you really want to drive a bus and live that life, I suggest metro.  They pay a lot more and the working conditions are slightly better.

I worked for CT roughly 1.5 years ago and this place was messed up. Small clicky environment and the technology was so far behind it hurt my skillset and that was one of a few reasons why I left. Management was never there for you and did not back you. No training and the main guy working the Service desk had extremely poor human skills. I am now working with Sound transit and its like night and day. Sound transit is a great place to work and the management is awesome and the team I work on is fun to be around and the training is beyond what I could have ever expected. I do have a few friends I made at CT while I was there (nine months) and they all hate their job. Split shifts, split weekends. Poor management and extremely stressful environment to work in. Massive turn over in every department.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Bus driver 6 salaries reported	$47.84 per hour
Security officer 11 salaries reported	$33.82 per hour
Administrative assistant 14 salaries reported	$94,087 per year
Vehicle service attendant 6 salaries reported	$38.52 per hour
Facilities maintenance technician 7 salaries reported	$43.45 per hour

Working at Community Transit: Company Overview and Reviews

Community Transit

Community Transit Ratings

Popular jobs at Community Transit

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected