Jamalpur Gymkhana - Life After Graduation

Life After Graduation

Officers are assigned a Home Railway on completion of the course. This is the regional zone that will usually be where the officer will spend 15 to 18 years of working life.

The young officers go through a 18 month training and Bharat Darshan (Tour of India) to better understand:

• The span of the country and rail operations
• Functional breadth of the IRSME job role
  • Motive Power Availability
  • Train Operations - Scheduling
  • Production of Locomotives, Coaches, Wagons, Wheel sets, etc.
  • Repair and Manufacturing workshops
• Laws and rules governing the Railways
• Business Processes and Standard Operating Procedures

On successful completion of this phase the officer is posted as a junior officer, usually in a small town. Given the wide variety of roles in the IRSME, this phase is very different for each person. However the attempt of the administration is to ensure that everybody gets a well rounded exposure to all aspects of operation.

Personal lifestyle options can be very different for the same reason as above. Smaller towns offer a listing in the town's prominent citizens. Cities offer a greater variety of entertainment and cultural activities.

Professionally speaking, as compared to other engineers at that level of experience, the scope of responsibility and professional leeway is perhaps the broadest in the country. The number of people and amount of money impacted as a course of duty is probably unmatched. However, the quality of life can be less than desirable; more so when contrasted with the service sector boom in India. This has been a source of discontent in recent times with retention rates dropping in the cadre. Till recently the turnover has been largely in the ranks of junior officers, but of late this has been affecting mid-career officers as well.