Northern Conductor Assessment Day

[kane82]

Hi all, I've recently been invited to a Conductor Assessment Day for Northern. Just wondering if anybody has any tips or pointers they can give me regarding the day? The email says there will be a structured interview and a group exercise. I've had a look at previous posts on the forum and they're very helpful but most of them are from last year or older, so not sure if the process will have changed since then.

Any help anybody can give will be very much appreciated!

Ta.

 

[Thedispatcher]

Hello, had one three weeks ago and it hasn't changed compared to what others have said. Be prepared for the interview as soon as you walk in, as mine was booked for 1300 and I more or less went straight in to the interview. Mine was conducted by a Conductor Manager for a different depot (the other Manchester) and a conductor instructor who took notes and occasionally asked follow up questions. On the whole not too bad. Group exercise was based on the research they asked you to conduct as preparation. You're asked to think about what Northern do well and what they can do to improve. So then you feed back to the group and work out what you think could be improved. You'll then present this with your fellow applicants to about 6/7 managers. It's quite short at about 30 minutes in total so keep an eye on the time.

 

[kane82]

Thanks for that mate. Do you mind if I ask if you were successful or not?

The group exercise is the main thing I'm worried about - I've done these before and never been quite sure how to play it, i.e. how to find the middle ground between being a mute plonker or an overbearing plonker. How many were in the group?

I'm planning on visiting my local depot before the assessment and asking a few questions - is this something you did? Do people take their research notes in with them to the assessment?

 

[DayTripper01]

Congrats on getting to the assessment day! I attended one myself a few weeks ago but unfortunately wasn't successful. I'll share my experience but of course your assessment day could very well be different to mine.

Interview - This was mainly a competency based interview so make sure you have plenty of examples as well as doing your homework on Northern and the role itself. Don't make my mistake where I had some really good customer service/ difficult situation examples only to not have the chance to use them (although still worth having these up your sleeve should you have different questions to mine).From what I can remember they were based on communicating complex information, being supportive, team work & achieving targets. There were a couple more but I can't quite remember. Make sure you have a good variety of examples prepared and also try and explain how your actions could also apply to the conductor role.

Group Exercise - As a group of 6 candidates we were asked to share our recent experiences of using Northern Rail and come up with a single idea on what could be done to improve service. We then had 5 mins at the end to present this to the panel (I think there were about 8 of them) You are being judged throughout the group discussion so it's important to get the right balance of being heard but also listening and being supportive to the others. Luckily I had good group where no one was overbearing and to be honest I wouldn't begrudge any of the others getting the role as they were a decent bunch.

Despite being unsuccessful I genuinely appreciated the experience and I'm pretty sure I know where to improve for future opportunities.

Good luck on your assessment day!

 

[Thedispatcher]

I'm not sure to be honest mate, haven't yet heard back. The worst thing is to be mute by far. I'm not great at the either, but try to get talking to your fellow applicants before, learn their names and develop a rapport. This helps make it easier to work together. If possible, try to keep a eye on the time, makes some suggestions and encourage others to participate if they're a bit quiet. I was with five others.

As for research, I just caught one train and had a chat to the guard but the more research you can do, the better. Probably best to take your notes in, I certainly did. If possible try to come up with some ways the service could be improved so you're ready to fire away immediately.

 

[kane82]

Thanks for the tips buddy and best of luck to you.

 

[J-P_L]

I recently had an interview for a Trainee Conductor with Northern. Was a Conductor Manager and a HR person interviewing with general knowledge of business and competency based questions with follow ups related to the role. Mine didn't have a group exercise, just 1 to 1 interview with the feedback of research given within the interview. All in all mine lasted around an hour. I'd check the e-mail as the way mine was worded I wasn't expecting a group exercise (and was right!) and make sure you visit a station and research on a train, I found talking to Guards and staff helpful to drop in within the feedback of my findings.

Good luck with yours!

 

[kane82]

I recently had an interview for a Trainee Conductor with Northern. Was a Conductor Manager and a HR person interviewing with general knowledge of business and competency based questions with follow ups related to the role. Mine didn't have a group exercise, just 1 to 1 interview with the feedback of research given within the interview. All in all mine lasted around an hour. I'd check the e-mail as the way mine was worded I wasn't expecting a group exercise (and was right!) and make sure you visit a station and research on a train, I found talking to Guards and staff helpful to drop in within the feedback of my findings.

Good luck with yours!

Thanks J-P_L. What was it in the email that made you think you wouldn’t be doing a group exercise? Mine just says to carry out some research and come to the assessment with the ideas fresh in my mind - says I don’t need to bring anything else and full details of what I’ll have to do will be given on the day?

 

[J-P_L]

Thanks J-P_L. What was it in the email that made you think you wouldn’t be doing a group exercise? Mine just says to carry out some research and come to the assessment with the ideas fresh in my mind - says I don’t need to bring anything else and full details of what I’ll have to do will be given on the day?

It just said that it would be "a structured interview which will be competency based" and "to prepare for part of the interview I needed to carry out some research" etc. Mine made no mention of a Group Exercise and they way it reads made it sound that it was just a 1-1 interview, which i'm glad it was as i'm not a fan of group ones either!

They must adapt the interviews based on depot (my interview was for a smaller depot) or volumes they have shortlisted.

 

[kane82]

Ah sounds like mine’s definitely a group exercise then.

 

[kane82]

Congrats on getting to the assessment day! I attended one myself a few weeks ago but unfortunately wasn't successful. I'll share my experience but of course your assessment day could very well be different to mine.

Interview - This was mainly a competency based interview so make sure you have plenty of examples as well as doing your homework on Northern and the role itself. Don't make my mistake where I had some really good customer service/ difficult situation examples only to not have the chance to use them (although still worth having these up your sleeve should you have different questions to mine).From what I can remember they were based on communicating complex information, being supportive, team work & achieving targets. There were a couple more but I can't quite remember. Make sure you have a good variety of examples prepared and also try and explain how your actions could also apply to the conductor role.

Group Exercise - As a group of 6 candidates we were asked to share our recent experiences of using Northern Rail and come up with a single idea on what could be done to improve service. We then had 5 mins at the end to present this to the panel (I think there were about 8 of them) You are being judged throughout the group discussion so it's important to get the right balance of being heard but also listening and being supportive to the others. Luckily I had good group where no one was overbearing and to be honest I wouldn't begrudge any of the others getting the role as they were a decent bunch.

Despite being unsuccessful I genuinely appreciated the experience and I'm pretty sure I know where to improve for future opportunities.

Good luck on your assessment day!

Many thanks for that DayTripper, very helpful, and at least you’ll be well prepared now next time you apply. I’ve been mainly concentrating on the customer service/difficult situations examples so it’s interesting to note you weren’t actually asked these. Guess it’s pot luck which questions you do get asked.

Out of interest where is it you think you went wrong?

 

[kane82]

Had my assessment day yesterday. I didn't do as well as I could have done, particularly in the interview, but I know I would have done a lot worse had it not been for the advice I received from people on here. So thanks!

 

[J-P_L]

I'm not sure to be honest mate, haven't yet heard back. The worst thing is to be mute by far. I'm not great at the either, but try to get talking to your fellow applicants before, learn their names and develop a rapport. This helps make it easier to work together. If possible, try to keep a eye on the time, makes some suggestions and encourage others to participate if they're a bit quiet. I was with five others.

As for research, I just caught one train and had a chat to the guard but the more research you can do, the better. Probably best to take your notes in, I certainly did. If possible try to come up with some ways the service could be improved so you're ready to fire away immediately.

How long did it take to hear back from Northern after your interview?

 

[kane82]

How long did it take to hear back from Northern after your interview?

Think I got an email after 7 days. You not heard anything yet?

 

[J-P_L]

Think I got an email after 7 days. You not heard anything yet?

not a thing yet... been 4 weeks, do you get an email if you are unsuccessful?

 

[kane82]

As far as I know they tell you either way yes. I got an email saying I’d been successful at assessment day but other people must’ve been more successful - I’ve now got 9 months to wait for another vacancy to come up. I’d email HR and query it.

 

[Pabloid]

Hi all, I've recently been invited to a Conductor Assessment Day for Northern. Just wondering if anybody has any tips or pointers they can give me regarding the day? The email says there will be a structured interview and a group exercise. I've had a look at previous posts on the forum and they're very helpful but most of them are from last year or older, so not sure if the process will have changed since then.

Any help anybody can give will be very much appreciated!

Ta.

Hi Kane,
How did you get along? I had my assessment day in Aug and start on Mon 8th Jan. Man Picc.