"I started my career in my internship at ABC Railroad, which allowed me to learn how engineers collaborate with other departments such as dispatch and crew. That grew into working on a couple of large group projects while obtaining my certificate in locomotive engineering. Now, I have worked in rail transport for the past eight years, collaborating with a variety of job functions every day. On a regular day, I speak with dispatch, the train crew, and our engineers multiple times per day. I am a strong communicator, both verbally and written, and take great care to ensure I am delivering clear communication and go to extra lengths to carefully listen and ensure I am understanding correctly whatever is being communicated to me. I look forward to furthering my exposure to cross-functional collaboration if I were to join the BNSF Railway Company."

"We have cross-departmental continuous improvement teams that are challenging the status quo with a focus on continuous improvement," said Jon Gabriel, BNSF's vice president of Service Design & Performance. In fact, in the transportation team alone, there's quite a bit of coordinating: "Train crews consist of a locomotive engineer and conductor. Crews collectively operate about 1,200 trains per day, moving them across the BNSF rail network. The Transportation team also includes crews who work within our rail yards to switch or reassign freight cars to build trains or pick up and deliver freight to customer locations. Only promoted BNSF conductors can become locomotive engineers. Dispatchers who have assigned territory over multiple trains are also part of transportation."

Regardless of whether you have limited experience working with the teams in other departments, or in other areas of the company you work for, your focus should be on being a team player, while exhibiting a willingness to do whatever it takes to get the job done.