Northern conductor recruitment event - Tips

[Mike broughton]

Hi guys,

I’ve been invited to a conduct assessment day with northern, it says in the email there is a competency based interview and a group exercise focused on the improvement of northerns service.

I plan to prepare for both well in advance but was wondering if anyone had any tips?

Cheers!

 

[Sirennif]

Can I ask which depot you are interviewing for? My application is still under consideration and I did my maths and verbal reasoning back in June

 

[Super_Hans]

I recently had an interview for a Northern conductor in Manchester but was unsuccessful.
We had a group discussion exercise whereby the question asked was something along the lines of 'How would you deal with a situation of a non fair paying customer on a train approaching an unmanned station'. The face to face interview questions were very much asking for experiences regarding customer services (examples of being recognised for good customer service, dealing with difficult customers, helping people out whilst out of work hours and so on).
Although I have asked for feedback I'm yet to get any so can't say exactly where I went wrong but I suspect that my lack of experience with face to face customer services went against me because the preparation I had done as far as answers were not so much to do with that (I don't have a great deal of face to face customer experience, my CV is mostly office work)
Try and make all of your answers follow the STAR technique https://www.theguardian.com/careers/careers-blog/star-technique-competency-based-interview because they're hot on that too. Good luck, I hope you do better than I did

 

[mjn]

I completed the online tests (numeracy and verbal reasoning) last night, for a conductor role I applied for early Jan. I'd almost forgotten about it to be honest it's been that long. Am I right in thinking that the assessment day would be the next step?

 

[R Trevithick]

I use CAR which is similar to the STAR technique.

“CAR Explained

Context: First explain the surrounding context for which you were required to act upon.
Action: Describe your actions to remedy the problem or to create new opportunities.
Result: What was the outcome of your actions / how did the organization benefit?”

Whichever you use it is done on a points scoring basis so make sure you get the information in for each step. What the problem was, what you did and what the result was (special emphasis on the benefits to employer etc).

Remember this is about you so don’t say we did this, the company did that. Bull yourself up as my dad used to say.

Good luck

 

[Opal99]

Where did you apply for Mike? I also applied and since July my application says “under consideration”.

 

[Opal99]

Can I ask which depot you are interviewing for? My application is still under consideration and I did my maths and verbal reasoning back in June

I did my last online test in July and mine also says under consideration.

 

[Mike broughton]

Hi guys, thanks for your replies!

So ‘I met the standard’ which I am assuming is good news?! Just waiting for a training course to come up, any idea how long the wait is?

 

[Mike broughton]

Can I ask which depot you are interviewing for? My application is still under consideration and I did my maths and verbal reasoning back in June

Carlisle