Conductor Interview

[djnitro30]

Afternoon all. I have my interview for Conductor coming up in a couple of weeks time & I was wondering if anybody has any advice or if anybody has recently had an interview so I have an idea what to expect.
Many thanks in advance.
Simon

 

[Darren1980]

Yes, I did one recently and would recommend the following:

1. Know off by heart the definitions of the role - revenue protection, face of the TOC, customer service, safety, ticket sales, door operation etc

2. Practice as many of the "Tell me about a time that you....." questions that you can possibly find on the internet. Answer them quickly and confidently. They are expecting you to be prepared so sitting there pondering answers and delving slowly into your memory to remember a time you "exceeded customer expectations" just shows lack of preparation and research.

3. Know lots about the TOC.

4. Practice your body language and appearance - it's a customer facing role so you'll be assessed on this.

Hope this helps

 

[Elwyn]

I used to do a lot of interviewing, for competency based interviews. (As Darren has said, they tend to be: "Give me an example of a time you..."). In many cases the panel will have agreed before hand how long they intend to spend on each area eg analytical skills, managing conflict, diversity etc. For example, that might be 10 minutes per competence. It doesn’t take long for 10 minutes to pass and many candidates waste time with information that is not relevant to the question. They spend precious minutes talking about strategic changes to the organisation they worked for or issues that were outside their control. What the interviewer wants to hear is a quick focused summary of the problem or task you faced, and then what you personally did to sort it out, explaining any snags you overcame, and what the final outcome was.

If you give a good powerful example in a short period of time, you can then say to the panel, “I have another example if you like.” If they say yes, then you get two bites of the cherry and may score higher if both are good examples.

So have spare examples for every area they may ask you about. (You should know what those areas are from the job advert and application form).

Don’t be afraid of admitting to having had a problem or two with a difficult task. I was always suspicious of people who claimed to have undertaken a difficult project that had no snags, came in on time, within budget, and to the right quality. Real life isn’t like that and they are usually either lying or it wasn’t a very difficult task. If you had a problem, explain what it was and how you overcame it. Perhaps you had to go back to the person who tasked you and ask for a bit more time, more money, technical help or a spec change. Or, for example, a customer or colleague who is really angry and aggressive doesn’t always calm down straight away when you tackle them. Sometimes you need to be persistent and assertive or indicate you intend to call assistance etc. Only then do they alter their behaviour. As long as you eventually manage the situation effectively, that’s fine. Being honest about snags and setbacks adds credibility to your examples.

 

[djnitro30]

Thanks Darren & Elwyn very helpful responses. I am feeling a lot more prepared now than I was before. Just got to work on my knowledge on FGW. I'm finding it hard to take in & remember but hopefully I'll be ok.