Arriva Trainee Drivers and Guards

[Beveridges]

Your always going to get a much lower vacancy to applicant ratio when there are a lot of vacancies so its not suprising its only 1:75 instead of the usual 1:300.

Drivers Jobs advertised Internal only in my TOC (Northern) have been known to be lower than 10 applicants per vacancy.

 

[sw1ller]

Your always going to get a much lower vacancy to applicant ratio when there are a lot of vacancies so its not suprising its only 1:75 instead of the usual 1:300.

Drivers Jobs advertised Internal only in my TOC (Northern) have been known to be lower than 10 applicants per vacancy.

That's a fair comment. I suppose if there were 100 jobs going then to satisfy my 300:1 ratio there would have to be 30,000 applicants. Think 1,500 is enough.

 

[choo~choo]

Rumour is 3-5 courses this year..

Anyone have any tips for the Structured interview?

 

[HelixUK]

I've applied for a conductor job, good luck to everyone that applied for the various jobs.

After writing my personal statement and paragraphing everything nicely it turns out their system squashed everything together so it's just one big block of text. That's a bit annoying, I hope it doesn't affect the outcome of my application.

Early days yet but does anybody have any information about what happens at the conductor assessment day?

Also, regarding the 'structured interview' would this be along the lines of evidencing you have the right skills by using examples from your life?

Regards

 

[loplop]

Hi Shaun,

I also applied for the conductor post, fingers crossed there's some good news for us both fairly soon. Closing date is today.

I don't know anything about the interview but also would be interested in any info anyone has (although I don't know that I have much of a chance of getting an interview!).

 

[TDK]

Hi Shaun,

I also applied for the conductor post, fingers crossed there's some good news for us both fairly soon. Closing date is today.

I don't know anything about the interview but also would be interested in any info anyone has (although I don't know that I have much of a chance of getting an interview!).

Think positive - it works wonders

 

[Sammy h]

Just had a call from Arriva. Invited to a two days worth of assessments. Ghetto advised me that they're paying for the accommodation and will send me an email shortly.

Over the moon. Hardcore revision starts now!

 

[svrdan]

Congratulations Sammy.

Was sifted unfortunately, but it was just as well as i seemed to make a hash at the personal statement lol.

Best of luck down Cardiff.


May try for signalling instead since im a lot better at it, and can prepare in more detail.

 

[choo~choo]

Just had a call from Arriva. Invited to a two days worth of assessments. Ghetto advised me that they're paying for the accommodation and will send me an email shortly.

Over the moon. Hardcore revision starts now!

Well done mate, could make the same course if we're lucky

 

[TDK]

Just had a call from Arriva. Invited to a two days worth of assessments. Ghetto advised me that they're paying for the accommodation and will send me an email shortly.

Over the moon. Hardcore revision starts now!

Is that for the guards position or drivers?

 

[anthony263]

I have an application out for a trainiee gaurd position but I havent heard from Arriva yet

 

[loplop]

Congratulations Sammy h!

 

[Bert and Ernie]

Rejection for me for driver pos. oh well

 

[sw1ller]

Rejection for me too. Will have another pop as soon as I can! seems I cant jut fumble my way through life. I actually have to try.

 

[NI 271]

Same here, I think I am too far away, even though I did say I'd relocate. There will be more along shortly...

 

[sw1ller]

Same here, I think I am too far away, even though I did say I'd relocate. There will be more along shortly...

I want to believe this too, i'm about 1 hour 10 mins away from Holyhead. my family live there but I think my app was pretty decent. (i'd hire me) hehe. I put I would relocate but this wasn't really an option on the app. I recently applied for northern and when I spoke to them they said I shouldn't try if out of area as they only want people living within the area as previous applicants had not relocated even though they said they would. Another case of others spoiling it fr the rest of us!!! Ahhhhhhhh well. Good luck next time pal.

 

[svrdan]

This is interesting as my application for Machynlleth got rejected despite the fact im in Aberystwyth which is 40 minutes away.

Im wondering if this apply for all areas of the railway and not just Drivers??

What if one wanted to apply for a position away from where they are living and you get rejected because your not an hours journey away????


To Some extent, i can see why but it is still confusing??

 

[Sammy h]

I live in NE England which is obviously ages away from any of the locations (I applied for all of them) so I don't think location has anything to do with it?

 

[Beveridges]

This is interesting as my application for Machynlleth got rejected despite the fact im in Aberystwyth which is 40 minutes away.

Im wondering if this apply for all areas of the railway and not just Drivers??

Normally if a TOC puts in a rule about how far away you can live then that applies to all safety critical roles within the company not just Drivers.

Not saying ATW have such a rule in place. They accepted my app form back in Jan 2009 even though I lived 135 miles away from where I was applying for.

 

[TDK]

I live in NE England which is obviously ages away from any of the locations (I applied for all of them) so I don't think location has anything to do with it?

You haven't got the job yet. They will certainly ask you if you are willing to relocate.

 

[Sammy h]

You haven't got the job yet. They will certainly ask you if you are willing to relocate.

Obviously I know I haven't got the job yet? I was saying that to the members who stated they didn't get invited to tests as they live too far away. Obviously this isn't the case as I have been invited to the tests.

In my application I did state that I would be relocating. Not sure if that helped or not....

 

[TDK]

In my application I did state that I would be relocating. Not sure if that helped or not....

If you had not you would not have got to this stage so it was an essential comment to make. The new European directive on the fatigue index for drivers will only work correctly if you live no more than 45 minutes from your home depot and I have mentioned this before, this is one of the main reasons there are so many vacancies becoming available. At interview I would advise you to take some evidence with you that can prove you will relocate if you have any or build a case that it will not affect your life if you do relocate as this if you cannot convince the panel will most certainly cause you to not pass the interview, even back in 2004 I was rejecting applications with candidates who did not meet the criteria of distance from depot and did not put on their forms they would relocate, and the ones I interviewed I press home that it is essential that they do relocate.

 

[Sammy h]

Thanks for the info TDK.

Being as young as I am, I still live with my parents so relocating wouldn't be a problem at all. Not really any physical evidence I can take apart from telling them this verbally.

Looking forward to it.

 

[TDK]

Thanks for the info TDK.

Being as young as I am, I still live with my parents so relocating wouldn't be a problem at all. Not really any physical evidence I can take apart from telling them this verbally.

Looking forward to it.

Get quotes off the internet and take them with you for rent costs in the depot area?

 

[rugi]

Just to let you guys know that these jobs will be advertised shortly on the website. Don't know any more details yet, cheers.

Surely someone must know something by now

 

[ontrack31]

Surely someone must know something by now

My application still shows the status "short listing". I went for Trainee Conductor. This is my second application. I went all the way through to the interview the last time, but wasn't offered a job. I hope being keen will work in my favour this time.

 

[teaanddunkers]

My application still shows the status "short listing". I went for Trainee Conductor. This is my second application. I went all the way through to the interview the last time, but wasn't offered a job. I hope being keen will work in my favour this time.

If memory serves me right, it was a good 2-3 weeks shortlisting last time, so this is normal. Don't forget they'll have at least 1500 apps to sort through!

By the way, one of the guards in the last school that you missed out on had applied before and failed at the interview so encouragement there for you!

 

[Greenback]

I heard today that shortlisting for the conductor vacancies has been completed. It's probably no more than mess room gossip though.

 

[loplop]

Someone posted another thread to say they were invited to an assessment day via a phone call on Friday so it sounds like the gossip might be correct. I didn't get a phone call but online still says 'shortlisting', just wondered if anyone else had heard anything?

 

[Greenback]

I heard today that there were around 1400 applicants for the driver vacancies,