Do Talent pools work

[Andrew32]

I am currently in a talent pool and have been there since September 2013 and an due to come out of it right at the end of Feb 2014.

What I want to ask is:

Do they work

Does the toc offer you vacancies that become available just after you have left the pool, for instance, a course is due to come up at the end of March and I have to serve one months notice which I would have to serve at the end February which is right at the end of my talent pool period.

Are there people who have been in talent pools who have or have not got jobs as a result of being in them.

I'm currently in one but am concerned nothing will good will come from it.

Thanks in advance

 

[TDK]

I am currently in a talent pool and have been there since September 2013 and an due to come out of it right at the end of Feb 2014.

What I want to ask is:

Do they work

Does the toc offer you vacancies that become available just after you have left the pool, for instance, a course is due to come up at the end of March and I have to serve one months notice which I would have to serve at the end February which is right at the end of my talent pool period.

Are there people who have been in talent pools who have or have not got jobs as a result of being in them.

I'm currently in one but am concerned nothing will good will come from it.

Thanks in advance

If the TOC advertises for position within the role you are in the talent pool this is not good news. Talent pools are in my opinion a waste of time as usually you have a borderline pass and when the position is advertised again your pass rate will almost certainly be lower than other applying.

 

[W230]

Do they work

I'm guessing they work for the TOC or they wouldn't bother with them!

Does the toc offer you vacancies that become available just after you have left the pool, for instance, a course is due to come up at the end of March and I have to serve one months notice which I would have to serve at the end February which is right at the end of my talent pool period.

Not sure. There have been posts on here before about people being offered jobs a couple of years after passing the assessments though I would guess that this is very rare.

Are there people who have been in talent pools who have or have not got jobs as a result of being in them.

I was put in a talent pool with Northern a couple of years ago. I took it to mean I hadn't got the job so accepted one with another TOC (where I now work). Northern got back to me within four weeks to offer me the job but I had to decline as i'd accepted the other.

At a guess, the TOC will have x amount of people in the talent pool and will offer jobs to the most suitable candidate first, moving down the list until the position is filled. In this case, the longer you wait in the 'talent pool', the less chance there is of a job. Shortly before I received the offer of employment from Northern, I noticed they had re-advertised the job so assumed I had been unsuccessful only for them to ring me up. I assume that if the TOC keep on assessing people who score higher than you then they would go above you in the talent pool and would be offered a job first.

This is only a guess though!

 

[Andrew32]

I didn't go into the talent pool straight after my conductor assessment, I was placed on hold for one of two positions that were available at the depot I'd applied at so id assume that I must have scored well in the assessment.

Two months later the positions were pulled due to a change in the traincrew plans and was put in the talent pool as a result and told that they would be in touch once any further vacancies arose at the depot.

The jobs were advertised at the start of October and I rang to ask why they were advertising for jobs when I was in the talent pool.

I was told that I was the only person in the talent pool and there was more than one position that need filling, I know 5 people have retireed this year at the depot I applied for and two others are moving from conducting to train driving in January.

So I must surely be in with a chance?
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Based on the above few posts I would assume it's game over for me then and I should start looking elsewhere, just slightly annoyed that the jobs were pulled as I would be training now if they hadn't have been.

 

[Mattmatt]

I was in a talent pool with northern for near their 6 month cut off point. I was 1 week away from having to re-apply & got offered the position of conductor. So they do work.