TTC Application Process

[9924]

5 hours ago, NoUse4AName said:

Ok well I jumped from malvern Division to queensway holy, note to anyone in training now or in the future dont miss more than two days of training due to illness go in sick if you have to, I did and I have to attend a redocumentation and start training from the start again and I went from having a five minute drive to malvern to over an hour at queensway provided I get through training 

A word of wisdom for any job, if you're new and on probation, unless you've been admitted to the hospital, don't miss a day period. 

[NoUse4AName]

25 minutes ago, 9924 said:

A word of wisdom for any job, if you're new and on probation, unless you've been admitted to the hospital, don't miss a day period. 

Yes sir even if you are puking and have terrible stomach craps solider on get your butt into work and hope that your coworkers don't get what you have or had, I almost forgot I also saw my family doctor the next day and gave them a doctors note lol

[Someguy3071]

17 hours ago, NoUse4AName said:

Ok well I jumped from malvern Division to queensway holy, note to anyone in training now or in the future dont miss more than two days of training due to illness go in sick if you have to, I did and I have to attend a redocumentation and start training from the start again and I went from having a five minute drive to malvern to over an hour at queensway provided I get through training 

Queensway is like Malvern of the west end. It sucks that it's a long drive for you but it's a good division. And there is a possibility you'll be moved when master sign up happens. Any other division will be closer so hope for that. 

[angi]

On 8/15/2019 at 3:24 PM, SXL said:

Hey everyone, this forum had helped me a lot before I attended my Information Session. I would like to take a quick second to share my timeline so far:

Online application : February 12, 2019

Information Session Invitation: May 7, 2019

Session/Interview/Conditional Offer: May 22, 2019

Medical Appointment: June 10, 2019

Received Police Clearance: June 27, 2019

Received MTO medical clearance: July 11, 2019

Email for Documentation: TBD

Training Day: TBD

I have almost same timeline. But I guess we will start in jan feb due to master singup.

[georgepaca]

On 8/16/2019 at 7:06 PM, angi said:

I have almost same timeline. But I guess we will start in jan feb due to master singup.

What was the timeline they said you'd start training in your info session? At the June 17 they said we won't start training until Dec/Jan, curious to what they told the people at the May info session.

[angi]

17 hours ago, georgepaca said:

What was the timeline they said you'd start training in your info session? At the June 17 they said we won't start training until Dec/Jan, curious to what they told the people at the May info session.

 

17 hours ago, georgepaca said:

What was the timeline they said you'd start training in your info session? At the June 17 they said we won't start training until Dec/Jan, curious to what they told the people at the May info session.

My info was on 22 may,medical 6 june and police clearance 27 June. In info session they said 2 or 3 months.I send them email last week they said documentation will be next month or so but training will be in Jan/feb. No training between mid nov and dec.

[georgepaca]

My info was June 17, Med July 2, Police Clearance July 4. I was surprised that they said dec/jan training which was like 6 months. Looks like I won't start that time since your batch is earlier than mine. Unless they start my batch with your batch i'm assuming its going to be later. I guess I could take a nice vacation in January 😀

[NoUse4AName]

42 minutes ago, georgepaca said:

My info was June 17, Med July 2, Police Clearance July 4. I was surprised that they said dec/jan training which was like 6 months. Looks like I won't start that time since your batch is earlier than mine. Unless they start my batch with your batch i'm assuming its going to be later. I guess I could take a nice vacation in January 😀

If it helps I know there is a training class starting Sept 3rd for bus operators 

[Someguy3071]

They're training a lot of new operators lately. So be patient. Your turn will come soon. 

[NoUse4AName]

2 hours ago, Someguy3071 said:

They're training a lot of new operators lately. So be patient. Your turn will come soon. 

Indeed, and two or three just failed out of training that were supposed to go to eglinton division so there is a few more spots open for the next training classes

[Zahir]

Hi everyone, my timeline is as follows.

Online application : January, 2019

Information Session Invitation: May 7, 2019

Session/Interview/Conditional Offer: May 22, 2019

Medical Appointment: June 06, 2019

Received Police Clearance: June 24, 2019

Received MTO medical clearance letter for CZ: July 07, 2019

Documentation: Pending

On 8/18/2019 at 4:57 PM, georgepaca said:

What was the timeline they said you'd start training in your info session? At the June 17 they said we won't start training until Dec/Jan, curious to what they told the people at the May info session.

They told me at info session that I would be starting training sometime in Sep/Oct.

[havox]

On 8/19/2019 at 2:11 PM, georgepaca said:

My info was June 17, Med July 2, Police Clearance July 4. I was surprised that they said dec/jan training which was like 6 months. Looks like I won't start that time since your batch is earlier than mine. Unless they start my batch with your batch i'm assuming its going to be later. I guess I could take a nice vacation in January 😀

Yeah enjoy a long vacation! You only get 2 weeks when you first start. I took mine in January and February =( should have spaced it out more, oh well the year is almost over anyways 

[Someguy3071]

10 hours ago, havox said:

Yeah enjoy a long vacation! You only get 2 weeks when you first start. I took mine in January and February =( should have spaced it out more, oh well the year is almost over anyways 

Yeah when you're new you don't get too many choices as far as what weeks you can take off.

On 8/19/2019 at 2:11 PM, georgepaca said:

My info was June 17, Med July 2, Police Clearance July 4. I was surprised that they said dec/jan training which was like 6 months. Looks like I won't start that time since your batch is earlier than mine. Unless they start my batch with your batch i'm assuming its going to be later. I guess I could take a nice vacation in January 😀

Take vacation before you start training. 

[georgepaca]

On 8/23/2019 at 10:47 AM, NoUse4AName said:

Indeed, and two or three just failed out of training that were supposed to go to eglinton division so there is a few more spots open for the next training classes

If people fail out in training, why would more spots open for training in the next set of classes? I'm assuming they have a set amount each training group. Why would the amount of spots open if people fail out?

 

17 hours ago, Someguy3071 said:

Yeah when you're new you don't get too many choices as far as what weeks you can take off.

Take vacation before you start training. 

I might be asking too early since I haven't even started training yet, but how hard is it to take the days you want off? Are you set to take a week off at a time? How about if you have a day you need off and know in advanced (i.e. a wedding on a Saturday night), is it hard to get a specific day off even if you know well in advanced that you need it off? Also assuming we start in January 2020, how soon do you get to take vacation? Does your vacation days accrue while you work or you get the 2 weeks start of the year.

[Someguy3071]

1 hour ago, georgepaca said:

 

I might be asking too early since I haven't even started training yet, but how hard is it to take the days you want off? Are you set to take a week off at a time? How about if you have a day you need off and know in advanced (i.e. a wedding on a Saturday night), is it hard to get a specific day off even if you know well in advanced that you need it off? Also assuming we start in January 2020, how soon do you get to take vacation? Does your vacation days accrue while you work or you get the 2 weeks start of the year.

If you start in January 2020 you will have no vacation until 2021. 

As far as taking days off you will have to floater days that you can use. You can also do an off-day exchange. So for example you have Tuesday Wednesday as your off day and you need a Saturday off, you can switch your Tuesday or Wednesday all day for a Saturday off. Booking floaters off and doing off day exchange best be done as soon as you know you need a day off because you're not guaranteed to get it anyway. 

[havox]

Also do note for birthday floaters. If your training starts AFTER your birthday then you will not have any floaters for the year. My birthday is May 15 and I started training May 16 and was out of luck. 

[georgepaca]

19 hours ago, Someguy3071 said:

If you start in January 2020 you will have no vacation until 2021. 

As far as taking days off you will have to floater days that you can use. You can also do an off-day exchange. So for example you have Tuesday Wednesday as your off day and you need a Saturday off, you can switch your Tuesday or Wednesday all day for a Saturday off. Booking floaters off and doing off day exchange best be done as soon as you know you need a day off because you're not guaranteed to get it anyway. 

How likely will someone with Saturday off switch it to be off on a Tuesday. My assumption is pretty low. Thanks for the info. This is important to me as I need to see how things may go. Its a little bit worrying when I hear many operators say they have no social life with working weekends straight for years. For me, I'm ok working weekends but here will be time where I (and everyone else) would need a Friday or Saturday off. I don't remember a party or get together with friends that happened on a Tuesday night.

No vacation for a year to me sounds brutal lol.

[Yo_Yo]

43 minutes ago, georgepaca said:

How likely will someone with Saturday off switch it to be off on a Tuesday. My assumption is pretty low. Thanks for the info. This is important to me as I need to see how things may go. Its a little bit worrying when I hear many operators say they have no social life with working weekends straight for years. For me, I'm ok working weekends but here will be time where I (and everyone else) would need a Friday or Saturday off. I don't remember a party or get together with friends that happened on a Tuesday night.

No vacation for a year to me sounds brutal lol.

They will remind you again and again during training, what to expect schedule wise, it is what you sign up for.  Every new operator has gone through it and you will get no sympathy.  It will be hard in the beginning to get crew exchanges done but not impossible but be ready to miss holidays, birthdays, date nights, etc. Also, if and when you do get through training you will be placed on spareboard and you can't do exchanges when you're on spareboard.  Don't want to sound like a downer but that's reality.

[NoUse4AName]

44 minutes ago, Yo_Yo said:

They will remind you again and again during training, what to expect schedule wise, it is what you sign up for.  Every new operator has gone through it and you will get no sympathy.  It will be hard in the beginning to get crew exchanges done but not impossible but be ready to miss holidays, birthdays, date nights, etc. Also, if and when you do get through training you will be placed on spareboard and you can't do exchanges when you're on spareboard.  Don't want to sound like a downer but that's reality.

Our instructor said transit operators have a higher divorce rate than even cops do and I believe it, I don't mean to scare people off but the job is a whole lifestyle change.. he said that's why you see ppl in the industry dating or married because they get and are in the same lifestyle 

[Someguy3071]

29 minutes ago, NoUse4AName said:

Our instructor said transit operators have a higher divorce rate than even cops do and I believe it, I don't mean to scare people off but the job is a whole lifestyle change.. he said that's why you see ppl in the industry dating or married because they get and are in the same lifestyle. 

Happened to me. 

1 hour ago, Yo_Yo said:

They will remind you again and again during training, what to expect schedule wise, it is what you sign up for.  Every new operator has gone through it and you will get no sympathy.  It will be hard in the beginning to get crew exchanges done but not impossible but be ready to miss holidays, birthdays, date nights, etc. Also, if and when you do get through training you will be placed on spareboard and you can't do exchanges when you're on spareboard.  Don't want to sound like a downer but that's reality.

This is all true.

[Yo_Yo]

1 hour ago, NoUse4AName said:

Our instructor said transit operators have a higher divorce rate than even cops do and I believe it, I don't mean to scare people off but the job is a whole lifestyle change.. he said that's why you see ppl in the industry dating or married because they get and are in the same lifestyle 

Yep, my girlfriend at the time broke up with me within 3 months of working for TTC knowing in advance of my schedule, oh well, my pension is still secure.

[Bus_Medic]

11 minutes ago, Yo_Yo said:

Yep, my girlfriend at the time broke up with me within 3 months of working for TTC knowing in advance of my schedule, oh well, my pension is still secure.

You got off lightly. The divorce rate is astronomical.

I don’t recommend dating within the ttc though, too many ways for a jilted party to exact revenge should it end badly. 

edit: I see someone beat me to it.

[georgepaca]

I know its what we signed up for. Feel bad for those couples and families that have broken up. This is a good opportunity to have a stable income and retirement and sucks that this same opportunity is the same reason for many break ups.

[leylandvictory2]

9 hours ago, georgepaca said:

How likely will someone with Saturday off switch it to be off on a Tuesday. My assumption is pretty low. Thanks for the info. This is important to me as I need to see how things may go. Its a little bit worrying when I hear many operators say they have no social life with working weekends straight for years. For me, I'm ok working weekends but here will be time where I (and everyone else) would need a Friday or Saturday off. I don't remember a party or get together with friends that happened on a Tuesday night.

No vacation for a year to me sounds brutal lol.

depends if other people are desperate or they own you a favour. 

[georgepaca]

Switching subjects. I think this may be relevant for the application process because some of us are waiting for training and really evaluating if this is right for us.
When is the next collective agreement done? How big or real of a threat at that time would something like privatization operators positions be? I used to work in a union in the public sector where almost every year there were threats that we'd be privatized but nothing happened. It seems much different now with Doug Ford as premier.