Transport for Wales - Trainee Train Drivers

[David85]

Sorry to hear this, I'm sure you'll get another chance though - the pass results for the psychometrics are valid at some operators for up to 5 years so keep your eyes peeled.

Also, I come from an office based background in a completely unrelated field and managed to pass the DMI, I wouldn't say that's what lost you it.

Did you focus on the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) technique when answering? They really like real examples that demonstrate your competence in the topic of the question rather than answering in hypotheticals - although adding hypothetical stuff after answering with a situation that's relevant is a good way to do it.

Thanks for the reply

I felt I followed the STAR priciple pretty well on my examples, however without watching yourself back sometimes it may not come across as you think it does.

Im going to keep my head up. I think the one silver lining is that there may be other chances. A few years a go (non railway related) i got knocked back for a role and a year later got it.

The experience is invaluable, so I think I would be well set up for future.

If you apply for other TOCs, do you then skip the tests completely if they are still valid time wise or is that dependant on the company?

If TFW have further posts next year will reapply too.

What is the best way to get alerts. Do you have to register with each individual company or are there any other resources out there?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Diedinium]

Thanks for the reply

I felt I followed the STAR priciple pretty well on my examples, however without watching yourself back sometimes it may not come across as you think it does.

Im going to keep my head up. I think the one silver lining is that there may be other chances. A few years a go (non railway related) i got knocked back for a role and a year later got it.

The experience is invaluable, so I think I would be well set up for future.

If you apply for other TOCs, do you then skip the tests completely if they are still valid time wise or is that dependant on the company?

If TFW have further posts next year will reapply too.

What is the best way to get alerts. Do you have to register with each individual company or are there any other resources out there?

Thanks for any advice.

Yeah, if another TOC accepts your results you'll get to skip straight to the DMI most likely. Some expect "Enhanced" tests though, and TfW only tests to the "National" standard, so not all would accept your test results.

And yeah you have to register with each company for email alerts, keep an eye on this forum though as people tend to share threads or post updates pretty quickly when companies put up Trainee driver roles.

 

[David85]

Hi All.

Thanks again for the replies

I just wanted to get clarity on several things.

Based on above and with TFW only testing to national.

Is there a list of operators that anyone knows of that accepts national and doesnt requie enhanced?

If you had to sit the tests again due to requiring enhanced and didn't hit enhanced, would that null and void the original tests and therefore use a life and no longer be able to use the national ones for 2 years? Or say you failed a test would that null and void your orginal TFW national ones?

If so you see not sure would be worth risking applying for any TOCs that would require a resit in order to hit enhanced at this stage.

Thanks for any advice.

Thanks

 

[baz962]

Hi All.

Thanks again for the replies

I just wanted to get clarity on several things.

Based on above and with TFW only testing to national.

Is there a list of operators that anyone knows of that accepts national and doesnt requie enhanced?

If you had to sit the tests again due to requiring enhanced and didn't hit enhanced, would that null and void the original tests and therefore use a life and no longer be able to use the national ones for 2 years? Or say you failed a test would that null and void your orginal TFW national ones?

If so you see not sure would be worth risking applying for any TOCs that would require a resit in order to hit enhanced at this stage.

Thanks for any advice.

Thanks

Go to the OPC website and it has a list of operators and wether they accept enhanced or national. Not all operators are on there though. Bearing in mind if you just apply to an operator, they will let you know if you need to do more tests or redo any. Just apply is my advice and you can always decide whether to try for enhanced or not.

 

[David85]

Go to the OPC website and it has a list of operators and wether they accept enhanced or national. Not all operators are on there though. Bearing in mind if you just apply to an operator, they will let you know if you need to do more tests or redo any. Just apply is my advice and you can always decide whether to try for enhanced or not.

Thanks for the response/advice

 

[Valley_1]

Hi Everyone, first post here, so I have just had the devastating news I failed my DMI that I sat this week, do you had to wait for jobs to be posted again before you can re sit? Without having feedback aswell it’s hard to know where you went wrong

 

[David-1]

Same here, I heard today I also failed DMI, not sure if I want to go through it all again

 

[David85]

Hi Guys.

I feel your pain and I am in same boat this week. I know its not an agony aunt forum so I wont go on. However its an awful feeling. I thought I had nailed it and on the whole got positive feedback throughout, so was devasted by the news.

Might be a bit of denial but I do know some depots have big talent pools and waiting list for courses. I was told would be well into next year if successful. You just dont know what sort of goalposts HR have and how they move around. That said I dont want to disrespect those who have been successful, they deserve it fully and will be exceptionally strong candidates.

Do agree on the feedback side of it, really would like to know what was not up to scratch, so can improve for the future.

Feel free to reach out if you want to catch up regarding.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Aug 2023 ==

Also Valley-1, (anybody feel free to correct me as I had similar questions) I believe yes you will need to wait 6 months from the interview date until you can reapply with TFW. Your test scores will be still valid for 2 years, so if successful on application, its likely you will be back to DMI stage. You can also apply to other TOCs but as ive researched and been told on here, unfotunately a lot have their own enhanced standard, so these tests may not be sufficient to go straight to DMI. That said its worth considering all options. Hopefully other opportunities will be available soon for you with TFW.

Again feel free to reach out if want to catch up.

 

[Diedinium]

Would recommend those of you who failed not to give up, I failed my first DMI with CrossCountry, a year before the one with TfW which I passed.

In hindsight I can tell how badly I did in the first one now as I just wasn't prepared enough, hadn't done enough research and didn't have good questions to ask etc

 

[Valley_1]

Would recommend those of you who failed not to give up, I failed my first DMI with CrossCountry, a year before the one with TfW which I passed.

In hindsight I can tell how badly I did in the first one now as I just wasn't prepared enough, hadn't done enough research and didn't have good questions to ask etc

I’m going to give it another go in 6 months, makes you wonder why DMI isn’t done at the start to save the time and money they spend putting us through the tests to then get told right at the end, sorry you haven’t made it

 

[Diedinium]

I’m going to give it another go in 6 months, makes you wonder why DMI isn’t done at the start to save the time and money they spend putting us through the tests to then get told right at the end, sorry you haven’t made it

Yeah that's why CrossCountry do the DMI first lol, TfW seem to take the approach of throwing everyone at the wall and seeing who sticks.

 

[Valley_1]

Yeah that's why CrossCountry do the DMI first lol, TfW seem to take the approach of throwing everyone at the wall and seeing who sticks.

Certainly feels that way

 

[Tricky1972]

Did computer tests this morning. Failed the 'staring at the grey square' one. Passed the other two. Failed the one I thought I'd nailed. Can't have been quick enough as I reckon I clicked them all. Bit frustrating but chin up.

 

[IntercityJacob]

I’m going to give it another go in 6 months, makes you wonder why DMI isn’t done at the start to save the time and money they spend putting us through the tests to then get told right at the end, sorry you haven’t made it

Because the DMI takes more time per candidate and therefore costs more money than the psychometric tests do - they can sit 30 people simultaneously [paper] or 4/6 people [computer]. What would be the point in making 2 x driver managers interview a single person for 90 minutes, only to have them fail the hand eye coordination test !!

 

[craigybagel]

I’m going to give it another go in 6 months, makes you wonder why DMI isn’t done at the start to save the time and money they spend putting us through the tests to then get told right at the end, sorry you haven’t made it

Because the DMI takes more time per candidate and therefore costs more money than the psychometric tests do - they can sit 30 people simultaneously [paper] or 4/6 people [computer]. What would be the point in making 2 x driver managers interview a single person for 90 minutes, only to have them fail the hand eye coordination test !!

To be fair, until a few years ago TfW did do things in reverse - the DMI came before the psychometric tests. It meant they only had to pay to put forward a very small amount of candidates for psychometrics. I'm not sure why they changed it to the system they're using now, but they were an outlier at the time.

 

[Diedinium]

To be fair, until a few years ago TfW did do things in reverse - the DMI came before the psychometric tests. It meant they only had to pay to put forward a very small amount of candidates for psychometrics. I'm not sure why they changed it to the system they're using now, but they were an outlier at the time.

The problem is that the failure rate for the psychometrics is sometimes as high as 50%, so they'd have to interview twice the number of candidates they actually needed in the hope that enough would pass the tests.

 

[craigybagel]

The problem is that the failure rate for the psychometrics is sometimes as high as 50%, so they'd have to interview twice the number of candidates they actually needed in the hope that enough would pass the tests.

To be fair, I think the fact they interviewed first meant that the quality of the candidates they sent forward for psychometrics was higher. Anecdotally at least from talking to people who went through the process, the pass rate in those days was a lot higher than 50%.

Also at the time they only had the capacity to put 3 candidates a day through psychometrics - whereas you can get through a lot more DMIs than that. I suspect that with the new training facilities in both Cardiff and Chester things may have changed on that front.

 

[Valley_1]

To be fair, I think the fact they interviewed first meant that the quality of the candidates they sent forward for psychometrics was higher. Anecdotally at least from talking to people who went through the process, the pass rate in those days was a lot higher than 50%.

Also at the time they only had the capacity to put 3 candidates a day through psychometrics - whereas you can get through a lot more DMIs than that. I suspect that with the new training facilities in both Cardiff and Chester things may have changed on that front.

That makes sense to be fair, as I’ve said before I’m going to give the DMI another go and use the next few months to practice and perfect, I just hope they continue the trainee driver program and they just don’t stop it once they have the drivers they need

 

[David85]

I just have a quick question more hypothetical than anything. In relation to trainee driver applications. Are you free to apply to depots/ TOCs iŕrespective of geographical location. I know they generally expect max 30-60 mins from home. Can you theorectically apply with the intention to relocate or do they do address checks etc?

 

[Diedinium]

I just have a quick question more hypothetical than anything. In relation to trainee driver applications. Are you free to apply to depots/ TOCs iŕrespective of geographical location. I know they generally expect max 30-60 mins from home. Can you theorectically apply with the intention to relocate or do they do address checks etc?

I'm relocating from Somerset to Shropshire (Shrewsbury) so I'd say the answer is yes. Most other TOC don't seem to allow this however, not sure why TfW do - but I'm not going to complain

They expect you to relocate before the start date though, so keep that in mind.

 

[TWP]

Anyone headed for Cardiff on Thursday for computer tests?

I'll be there pal! How you feeling?

 

[blindjustice21]

I'll be there pal! How you feeling?

Top tip. For the grey square black square test. After every time it changes blink and look away from the screen to stop you phasing out or just going eye wonky.

 

[ThePeakNed]

I'll be there pal! How you feeling?

Mine was last week.

Went in confident knowing exactly what to do as I'd passed them all before.

Email on Tuesday saying I'd passed MMI as well so just waiting for DMI date now.

 

[Diedinium]

Top tip. For the grey square black square test. After every time it changes blink and look away from the screen to stop you phasing out or just going eye wonky.

My tip is to count the number of grey squares you see between each black one, that kept me entertained lol

 

[3000]

Can anyone say how working sundays will now change, will it come on a long weekend or would it just be a sunday outside of that set?

 

[Plodster]

Can anyone say how working sundays will now change, will it come on a long weekend or would it just be a sunday outside of that set?

You won’t work a Sunday as part of the long weekend.

 

[3000]

You won’t work a Sunday as part of the long weekend.

thank you.

 

[Plodster]

Keep an eye on the Comeonboard site next week for Cardiff Trainee Driver advert…

 

[tomnpt83]

Good afternoon

Looking for examples of previous questions people have had in the last 18 months please?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Aug 2023 ==

Hi Guys.

I feel your pain and I am in same boat this week. I know its not an agony aunt forum so I wont go on. However its an awful feeling. I thought I had nailed it and on the whole got positive feedback throughout, so was devasted by the news.

Might be a bit of denial but I do know some depots have big talent pools and waiting list for courses. I was told would be well into next year if successful. You just dont know what sort of goalposts HR have and how they move around. That said I dont want to disrespect those who have been successful, they deserve it fully and will be exceptionally strong candidates.

Do agree on the feedback side of it, really would like to know what was not up to scratch, so can improve for the future.

Feel free to reach out if you want to catch up regarding.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Aug 2023 ==

Also Valley-1, (anybody feel free to correct me as I had similar questions) I believe yes you will need to wait 6 months from the interview date until you can reapply with TFW. Your test scores will be still valid for 2 years, so if successful on application, its likely you will be back to DMI stage. You can also apply to other TOCs but as ive researched and been told on here, unfotunately a lot have their own enhanced standard, so these tests may not be sufficient to go straight to DMI. That said its worth considering all options. Hopefully other opportunities will be available soon for you with TFW.

Again feel free to reach out if want to catch up.

Hiya mate when was your interview? Would you be able to help me regarding what questions that you had please? Cheers

 

[Fran1878]

Keep an eye on the Comeonboard site next week for Cardiff Trainee Driver advert…

Cardiff only or are trainee roles for other depots expected?