Just what Do Virgin want?

[Clip]

So there i am currently a Group station manager and fancied getting back into London so went for the managers job with VT at Euston.

just got a reply back from them after a couple of weeks past the end date and they are saying I dont have the required experience.

Is this some sort of joke or do they not think managing a whole group of them put me in good stead for 1 that they even share with another 2 TOCs and under NR.

I sometimes despair with what TOCS want nowadays - does anyone know?

 

[185]

I always suggest asking for feedback, however Virgin's Recruitment has for thirteen years been well and truly away with the fairies.

No matter how much experience you have in a job, this does not seem to get taken into account, even for the exact same job. No matter how good your sick & late record is that passes them by too.

I got two offers for Cabin Crew in 2000 and an offer as a Conductor. I had previously worked at Regional Railways, GNER and The Northern Belle as a steward.

Virgin rejected me for a Steward (CSA) job!

If you work in a bank, sweet shop, long term unemployed then you've got the interview. Railway staff? nah they don't want people that can do the job ffs.

The funniest part of Virgin is the automated feedback email.....


"Thanks for applying. Some Hints....

Did you check your spelling? :roll:

Do you understand the business?

Are you sure the rail industry culture is right for you ?" !!!!?!?!?!?

 

[Clip]

What got me most of all is when they were asking to tell them stuff that i had done and make it pertinent and recent.. Exactly what i did do..

Its just rather annoying them thinking that someone who learnt his station trade with NR at a major station- KGX - that it counts for nothing. Ive done more in 10 years on the railway then i ever thought possible and could run the whole of Euston for all 3 TOCs.

You can tell im a bit pi55ed off with them .

 

[nelsonfwebster]

I worked for Virgin trains from its inception to 2002, when i was lucky enough to get a guards job somewhere else.
If you were BR, they treated you like a leper, and made it difficult for you to gain promotion.
I applied for a promotion via the internal system and asked for an application form to fill out and waited and 2 days later got a letter saying "you didnt get the job", odd i thought , i havent applied for it yet!
So i contacted the HR and got told, "you havent got the job though!",
A fellow member of staff , didnt put in for a job and got an interview and told them he didnt apply and got told, well i'm sorry but you have been considered and havent got the position.
I left in the end because i could put up with the lies and stupidity that Virgin had turned Intercity West coast into.
They wouldnt employ people who lived near the station, most lived in the sticks, and had absolutely no experience within the railway industry.
The new staff we did get , were told, "dont talk to the BR staff, they are just bitter and twisted and you wont learn anything from them anyway"
Virgin didnt realise that people aint stupid, and we got on very well and soon these staff realised they had been lied to about everything, and the jobs had been "over sold" .
All they care about is appearance and the first class passengers, NO one else.
I left and was promoted many times within another company and Virgin still makes me angry!
Virgin trains is more like the Hitler youth, no fillings,no beards,and an undying love for Richard Branson

 

[185]

One of their traincrew managers warned me about Virgin Recruitment's practice of inviting huge numbers of external candidates, even though they've already made their mind up to give the job to internal candidates so recruitment team can legally 'cover their backs'.

Sure enough, at one assessment, of the group of over thirty, there were two internal candidates and someone's son for just 3 jobs (only one was full time). Unsurprising who the three jobs went to.

Virgin take the micky - many candidates had paid up to £20 in train fares (money given Virgin) to get to Crewe. Fairness and common sense seem to taken a holiday since 1997, at Virgin Recruitment.

 

[nelsonfwebster]

Funny you should mention this, I put in for a train drivers Job at Derby and there was about 10 of us sat waiting to be assessed and a traincrew manager came in with another manager (think she was catering) and we all heard him say.
" Oh and this is where you'll be booking on when you Start on June 6th, we know you have passed the assessments...."
Then she sat the same assessments as the rest of us, for one post....

need i say more


Oh and by the way - Virgin dont know what the word common decency means!,
even if you succeed , the goalposts are moved

 

[hairyhandedfool]

I think there is an element of this in all TOCs, for example, I'm pretty sure I got a trainee driver position because the head of retail knew me, knew I had applied to another TOC, seemed to recognise that I was better than most at the job I had at the time and had a word in someones ear.

 

[tagzy]

Unfortunately this is the case in most companies now.

Companies like VT want everyone to jump through their hoops so their employees all fit their own utopia-like business model. They'd rather have someone who is inexperienced but displays the right 'qualities' in an interview or application over someone who has all the experience and no-how to do a good job but for some reason doesn't fit their corporate image. It's pretty ludicrous I know and probably why this country is falling apart!

I have applied to the fire service numerous times. I have no firefighting experience and have made it to the last stage twice. However a retained firefighter I know personally has had a lot of difficulty even getting past the application stage! It's safe to say that most of these HR/recruitment types are utterly clueless about how the real world works!!

 

[mac]

I think with most rail jobs they no who will get them before the interview.I have applied for jobs with northern and network rail,been for interview and once even told i was best one there only to get letter week later saying no good,but when traveling with northern how many times do you see some young kid and think drivers son or daughter most of whom are only there till they get something better.

 

[island]

Unfortunately this is the case in most companies now.

Companies like VT want everyone to jump through their hoops so their employees all fit their own utopia-like business model. They'd rather have someone who is inexperienced but displays the right 'qualities' in an interview or application over someone who has all the experience and no-how to do a good job but for some reason doesn't fit their corporate image. It's pretty ludicrous I know and probably why this country is falling apart!

I have applied to the fire service numerous times. I have no firefighting experience and have made it to the last stage twice. However a retained firefighter I know personally has had a lot of difficulty even getting past the application stage! It's safe to say that most of these HR/recruitment types are utterly clueless about how the real world works!!

I can attest to that; I recently moved jobs and the last place I worked at, a bank, was far more interested in interviews about the stories you could tell ("tell me about a time in your career when you...") than whether you had technical or sales or whatever knowledge they were looking for.

 

[Greenback]

I can attest to that; I recently moved jobs and the last place I worked at, a bank, was far more interested in interviews about the stories you could tell ("tell me about a time in your career when you...") than whether you had technical or sales or whatever knowledge they were looking for.

There has always been an element of this, but it has got a lot worse. In the 1980's my interview for Royal Mail was more about whether I would become a militant union memebr than whether I had any aptitude for the job.

My civil service assessment centre was more concerned with whether I would be able to fit in with the modern corporate image of the organisation than whether I had the ability to do the job and absorb the technical knowledge required.

I have also had two assessments for TOC's in the last three years, during which I got the distinct impression that an internal candidate had already been chosen, and the recruitment team were merely going through the motions.