transport planner

deputy chief executive officer

bus driver

director of construction

senior administrative analyst

Los-Angeles-County-Metropolitan-Transportation-Authority

Overly bureaucratic, wasteful spending, projects overdue, over budget, no accountability, high tolerance for a truly toxic work environment, forms forms and more forms to fill out on top of data entry of the same info. Metro suffers from truly awful executive team, a board of directors that is out to lunch while patting themselves on the back for wasting taxpayer funding, an idiotic, poorly run HR department (you will sign more forms during the hiring process than the average home mortgage) and terrible IT.  Execs are more interested in office decorating, serving food at every meeting, and doing just about anything other than concern themselves with Metro's passengers and ridership. It is a self absorbed place.  Great benefits and OK pay, but the garbage you will have to put up with to get that will be beyond reason. The dark ages level computers will frustrate you just as much as the obscene number of interns making policy decisions. The level of dumb, backwards and in some cases, openly cruel people and practices, is astonishing, even for a government agency. No real regular employee communications or employee focused news. The only info circulated is all about external affairs and building stuff.  This employer is in serious need of a back-to-basics and productivity expert to run it. The mission drift over the past 5 years, the same 5 years that passengers have been fleeing metro services, needs to be swiftly addressed with a new management team.

The job of a Bus Operator is not easy and it moves at a fast pace. During your training for operating the bus study, study and study some more. You will need it when your out there on your own driving the bus. When dealing with the public always remember you are the professional and in charge of your bus. Your safety and the passengers come first at all times. If you treat the public with respect and empathy you will see that your work days will become easier for you. Study your rule book and contract book it will be a great help later on in your career as a Bus Operator. Workplace culture, I say talk to your co-workers and get a really good understanding about the job. Always talk to your union representative, management and all supervisors at your division because they are truly there to help you as best as they can. The hardest part of the job is dealing with the public because you come in contact with so many different personalities everyday. As a Bus Operator you will not be able to please everyone so don't take things to heart. The enjoyable part of being an Operator is helping people on or off the bus with disabilities or listening to a little kid rehearse a speech for school. I have had well known celebrities ride my bus. I have had the pleasure of talking to elder Holocaust survivors who would ride with me and share their stories. Those are just a few experiences that are part of the job and help you enjoy coming to work.

LA Metro pays great, if you managed to get hired. Nepotism is rampant, I just wished I was related or was close to someone who had pull there. If its between a hard worker or a relative, unfortunately for us who don't have any connection with them other than applying online or from the street, the chances are relationships will trump hard work or experience. Of course they won't admit that but I've seen it first hand and from the people that work there, I had a great supervisor, I loved her but the rest of the people there in general were very clicky and involved lots of politics. I just wanted to work, I wish I knew that I had to play that game of kissing up to the right people instead of just concentrating on my job and trying to do it the best I could. I wish I knew that or else I would still be there, it wasn't in my nature to kiss up I was about the work ethic but that wasn't enough, unfortunately. I would work there again if I could but for a different department. Because of job security once you are hired permanently, there are lots of people asleep during work time, mostly engineers, which is fine. That's government bureaucracy for you. I don't hate, I want to participate but unfortunately I only have my hard work ethic on my side.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The job stress is very high, due to the fact of the  high number of passenger..  assaults on drivers in Los Angeles. But overall the pay,  insurance benefits, vacations, pension, and the opportunity of moving up the ladder,  or to become a train operator, where you don't deal with the public,are worth the the job.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
 Trying to stay on time of the schedule, where the bus is assigned to arrive or leave at time points. Where buses interchange passengers to other routes and lines. The longer and experience acquired driving buses, it becomes easier and becomes routine

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Everyone is equal, and everyone get along. No matter what culture you are. It is a job that the  majority of bus operators help each other on the routes and lines, to stay on schedule.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
To start my assignment with no stress, whether it's family, illness, worries, passengers, lines,  avoid accidents and finish my days assignments safe.

Here's the bottom line, this is a bus and train company. The job is to safely move 3.5M people a day around LA and surrounding communities. If you are a bus operator, or mechanic, you live your life at Metro by the rule book. Violate a rule, and you will be fired, period. Bus and train operators, also called drivers, have no management they have a union. The only thing that protects the operators is the union contract. You will get great benefits, and a retirement plan, but pay is average. Bottom line, to have a career at Metro, a person needs a college degree so you can work in management at Metro headquarters. Metro is not a fun place to work, it is work. Being responsible for buses and trains and people is serious work, no party time. On occasion, HR tries to wrap some fun into the process, but it is very limited. It's an OK place to work, and as long as you don't violate any rules and get fired, you'll have a long career at Metro.

Work as Fire Department Liaison Officer for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority providing fire/life safety oversight for all Heavy and Light Rail projects in the City of Los Angeles.

I have been able to acquire a whole new code enforcement skill set for Fixed Guide way Transit and Passenger Rail Systems which has been a challenging and interesting departure from structural fire protection.

My co-workers are design builders, engineers, architects, law enforcement and first responder agencies as well as Metro Transit professionals.

The most difficult part of my job is providing fire/life safety oversight and code enforcement to very creative design-build transit projects whose major is to meet project deadlines well under budget projections.

The most enjoyable part of my job is the collaboration with multiple life safety agencies and the networking relationships I've established with working professionals

driving a bus on city streets picking up people and dropping off people safely without incidents I learned that this was a very stessful job. the management was very rude and lookout for themselves and if you do your job correctly they wont bother you and the co workers were rude and disrespectful to the passengers and the hardest part of the job is trying to keep the bus on time and dealing with heavy traffic and very short layovers not enough time for a restroom break and sometimes dealing with rude passengers and the best part of the job is trying not to have an accident and getting awarded by going to the bus roadeo which i participated in for 16 years and recieved several awards plus belt buckles yearly for not having any chargeable accident

The MTA is a great place to work.  Most of the people who work at the agency want to be there and work hard at their jobs to improve public transit in Los Angeles County.  However, the experience there is made better if you can find a department where you are appreciated and your co-workers are vested in your success. It depends on which department you are part of.

My workload at times was intense, and the end of one fiscal year following a new fiscal year made my job extremely challenging and was stressful at times.

The agency has generous benefits and gives its employees opportunities for personal time and vacation.  There are opportunities for those who have certain passions (music, etc) to find them during your time with the agency.

I grew so much at Metro and was able to move to operations policy groups including Records Management, Bus Maintenance and Operations (Bus Operations Control) to IT management.  I worked with great staff, learned how to sharpen my skillset and was given many opportunities to analyze business processes, reporting, system integration, risk management, and metrics, along with financial management and industry best standards related to IT business management, project management, ADA compliance management, working with the public sector, bus operators, bus managers, fire department, police, regulators, auditors, ACLU and other staff.

This is my first experience in a unionized job.  One of the drawbacks of this experience is that, as a U.S. military veteran, I am exempt from the requirements of the current Federal Health Care law.  However, as a condition of employment, I am required by the company to purchase health care that I don't use or need.

It is also a fact that as several unions represent employees of different divisions of this company, many of those employees receive higher pay and better benefits than the drivers/operators of said company.  Arguably, the people who drive for this company are it's life's blood, yet we are employed in a capacity that is much more punitive and less compensated.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Transport planner 28 salaries reported	$105,284 per year
Deputy chief executive officer 32 salaries reported	$194,810 per year
Bus driver 5 salaries reported	$32.22 per hour
Director of construction 14 salaries reported	$170,897 per year
Senior administrative analyst 20 salaries reported	$99,758 per year

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