Navy Veteran Spots Bright Future at Amtrak

Daniem #AmtrakVets

“I really viewed it as getting my foot in the door,” says Damien of joining Amtrak as a foreman in November 2012. “After doing some research, it seemed like Amtrak was a good company to be part of. So I wanted to get involved.”

Damien, a Navy veteran from New Jersey, works at Amtrak’s Ivy City Maintenance Facility on the preventative maintenance line, where locomotives receive repairs and mandatory maintenance check ups.

After spending nearly 12 years in active duty and earning his Bachelor’s degree, Damien was looking for a supervisor position with a company that would offer him opportunities into upper management.

He put his resume online, was contacted by a recruiter and came in for an interview at Amtrak. Four months later, he was offered a foreman position in Washington, D.C.

“My favorite part of the job is the fact that there’s so much room to make a difference here,” he says. “I enjoy making a difference. That’s what keeps me going.”

According to Damien, military skills “definitely transfer” to work at Amtrak. Those include leadership experience and the ability to work with and inspire a variety of people.

“Military folks have the best work ethic,” he says. “I could be biased, but they have a great attitude about getting the job done, getting it done safely and taking pride in what they do.”

Now Damien is looking forward to finishing a Masters Degree in Human Resources, which he does on the weekends when he’s not at drill for the Reserves.

“It’s an outstanding job, the benefits are great,” he says. “We need more military folks at Amtrak.”

 

In a continued effort to support the nation’s service men and women, Amtrak has set a goal of ensuring 25 percent of its new hires are veterans by 2015. Amtrak is the nation’s passenger railroad, serving more than 31 million passengers annually and 500 destinations nationwide. For more information, visit Amtrak.com/VeteransCareers.