NR Stores assistant position

[James_D]

Hi everyone,

First of all, i'm new to the board so pleased to be here!

Secondly, i'm looking for some help, advice and guidance from the esteemed members within! I've always been interested in the railways and I've recently just applied for the Stores Assistant position with Northern Rail, based at the Neville Hill depot in Leeds.

The online application process was quite detailed. Lots of competency based questions of previous instances from my professional life. The job description said SAP and Forklift driving experience would be an advantage, I have a little of the former and none of the latter but I think I demonstrated a willingness and rapidity of learning.

Just wonder if anyone had applied for a similar position or could tell me anything about the NR interview/assessment process. I haven't heard anything about whether i'd be invited the first stage but i'm fairly confident I will get at least a face to face interview.

Also, the salary scale was 'Circa £32k', anyone know any specifics of what that is likely to actually be?

Cheers!

 

[Romilly]

Welcome. May I just mention that you have probably given enough personal information in your post for you to be identified by both your current employer and Northern Rail. That may not matter, but if it does you may want to rapidly edit your original post.

 

[Steve childs]

Its the same job I do that you are talking about. Have you done the application? You have to be over enthusiastic on your application. I had a lot of forklift and sap experience when I applied. Tell them you are learning more sap at home, there is loads of user guides online. Tell them you are willing to do any overtime requirements. The biggest challenge will be learning all the different train parts. Find out what sets you work on and start revising. The interview is basically just trying to show the guy that you will get on with him and everyone else and not cause problems. Its worth rehearsing loads of questions like "Tell me a time you had to have a difficult conversation with someone." The computer work is a big part of this job so id focus on that and the train parts and what goes with what. Weather you have a forklift ticket or not they would train you again anyway. All the best.

 

[James_D]

Its the same job I do that you are talking about. Have you done the application? You have to be over enthusiastic on your application. I had a lot of forklift and sap experience when I applied. Tell them you are learning more sap at home, there is loads of user guides online. Tell them you are willing to do any overtime requirements. The biggest challenge will be learning all the different train parts. Find out what sets you work on and start revising. The interview is basically just trying to show the guy that you will get on with him and everyone else and not cause problems. Its worth rehearsing loads of questions like "Tell me a time you had to have a difficult conversation with someone." The computer work is a big part of this job so id focus on that and the train parts and what goes with what. Weather you have a forklift ticket or not they would train you again anyway. All the best.

Thanks Steve, really useful. I was definitely highly enthusiastic on my application. I have a good knowledge of all the different stock used by NR and the general principles of how EMU/DMU's work, but I have no engineering background per se, but i have studied quite technical subjects and my computer skills are very good so I hope to be a strong candidate.

The closing date for applications was just under 2 weeks ago and I submitted my application a couple of days before this closed. They said it could take 1-3 weeks for notification and I've heard nothing yet either way so I assume they're going through the sifting process.