Trainee train drivers wanted...

[valiant]

RemyMartin81D said:

100% this unless you do a permanent swap for lates with someone. Plenty of options once you're 'in' so to speak.

Hardest thing about the job is you can have an incident any time you are in that seat, it sounds worse than it is but you really can get caught out at the drop of a hat. Throw in a week or two of brutal earlies, you come in , get down your train. Away with the fairies and Bosh. Incident. I've seen it happen to so many people.

Every job has it's down sides but on balance the job is good and rewarding.

Yep, hardest job to get. Easiest job to lose.

Don’t go reading the comments section of the Daily Mail (or NP&E for that matter) and think that the unions will start banging fists on desks and start firing up the braziers to keep your job. Reality is, as RM has pointed out, that you could go to work, have an incident and be immediately stood down where you’ll start stting yourself that you won’t have a job to go back to.

I probably work for the most unionised company of a very unionised industry who have a reputation for going on strike if the wrong teabags are served up and I’ve known drivers lose their jobs just like that <clicksfingers>. The industry can be very unforgiving sometimes.

Saying that I enjoy my job. I’ve been there long enough that my shifts are generally settled (we have a large syndicate of drivers who regularly swap shifts between each other) but it can still be mentally exhausting sometimes especially if you’re involved in an incident where your brain has to from 0 to 100 in a second and you have to get things right first time. No hiding from the incident recorders!

[ChocolateFrog]

I had the assessment today, and passed.

Not sure how standardised it is across the country but I asked what the pass rate was and the person running the day said it was in the 50-70% range. I'd expect it to be lower, that said out of the 3 of us that started 2 passed so that fits.

[Nik da Greek]

ChocolateFrog said:

I had the assessment today, and passed.

Not sure how standardised it is across the country but I asked what the pass rate was and the person running the day said it was in the 50-70% range. I'd expect it to be lower, that said out of the 3 of us that started 2 passed so that fits.

I don't believe it's standardised at all When you say "assessment", do you mean the bells/buzzers/pyschometric tests? By the time you get there, hundreds of applicants will have already been weeded out and never even make it that far. The company don't want to waste their time and money setting up all these tests for people who have a better than average chance of failing them.

When I did mine there were 16 candidates on the day (out of a week of assessments). Half were gone by the end of the morning, which consisted of the buzzers, mechanical comprehension tests, etc. By the end of the afternoon, which was the structured interview part, there were just two of us. The other fella did about a week of front end turns, decided he was scared, and has worked as a TCS ever since. So I survived at least 16 to one odds and if nothing else it at least means Sandi Toksvig holds no fear for me

Congratulations, by the way Feel good about yourself because even if half the people you beat to the point of acceptance were bots, agency drones or simple fkwits, you've still beaten considerable odds to get there.

[Stedman]

Well done.

[ChocolateFrog]

Yes, all the psychometric tests and an interview in the afternoon.

3 paper based tests first up, the guy that didn't make it left at this point. Then 3 computer based tests for attention/observational skills and hand/eye coordination.

Then a full 2 hour interview in the afternoon, where I'm convinced the woman conducting it didn't learn a thing about me.

They were also a bit vague about the next step. A potential interview with the depot manager was as much info as I could glean.

[CharlieH89]

CharlieH89 said:

I’ve applied internally in my TOC.
Fingers crossed

Applied a couple of years ago but didn’t go through to the next stage.

Vacancies removed

ChocolateFrog said:

They were also a bit vague about the next step. A potential interview with the depot manager was as much info as I could glean.

My bro in law was successful for a depot driver job recently.
He had the phone call for the interview with the depot manager 2 days later then the interview the following week. He had been called out the blue if he had still wanted to apply for the job so they may have needed to fill the vacancy and it was fast tracked.

[carinatauk]

I was talking to my window cleaner last week, and found out that he was also a fireman and had been one for 20 odd years. The window cleaning was to boost his money and fill his time.

He told me that a lot of firemen are leaving after 10 years or so and applying for train driver roles [better money and time]. It appears they are ideal candidates because of their unique additional skills, ie first aid etc etc

[CharlieH89]

Concentration, calm under pressure, working shifts.

Actually had a fella who was a fireman turn up at my station enquiring on how driver interviews go, what questions are asked (I had had one a few months before)

Not sure if he got a job as a driver but he was a bit of a character. Very loud.

[Nik da Greek]

We get loads of them. Bedford has a huge firestation and many have jumped ship a mile or so up the road to the railway. Also prison officers because Bedford also has a prison

[Stedman]

Our latest recruit (from another depot), driver of 3 years was a Fireman and Marine before that.

[CharlieH89]

Driver vacancy was removed so I've recently applied for a depot driver vacancy.

[Bodie390]

My wife has passed all the driver recruitment process and should start in the new year hopefully.

I passed out in 1998 as a driver and I wouldn’t like to do it all again as it’s more intense nowadays.

[ChocolateFrog]

I had my second interview a couple of weeks ago. Haven't heard anything yet but they said it would be around 5 or 6 weeks before I did.

Not convinced I did that well but it's rare you come out of an interview thinking you've smashed it.

[Oggs]

Oggs said:

I have a friend who starts on the 26th February with First Capital and they are recruiting again closes the 6th December Bedford area.

I should have applied when I posted this but didn't.
I did apply last year to a different TOC and started in Jan this year and have done enough driving hrs and just waiting for my part 3

[CharlieH89]

Bodie390 said:

My wife has passed all the driver recruitment process and should start in the new year hopefully.

I passed out in 1998 as a driver and I wouldn’t like to do it all again as it’s more intense nowadays.

Northern?

[Stedman]

Bodie390 said:

My wife has passed all the driver recruitment process and should start in the new year hopefully.

I passed out in 1998 as a driver and I wouldn’t like to do it all again as it’s more intense nowadays.

Two E61 ///Ms on the drive then

[Bodie390]

CharlieH89 said:

Northern?

Virgin West Coast but soon to be First Trenitalia or whatever it’s going to be called.....

[Stedman]

Bodie390 said:

Virgin West Coast but soon to be First Trenitalia or whatever it’s going to be called.....

Christ. That's good

[Gareth1974]

Bodie390 said:

CharlieH89 said:

Northern?

Virgin West Coast but soon to be First Trenitalia or whatever it’s going to be called.....

First Genitalia

[bobmcgod]

Would anyone be willing to look over a covering letter I've been asked to put together that lists my transferable skills for a potential train driver role?

Cheers