So close but so far

[stevieoz]

Hello all

I am writing this after getting very close to getting a few trainee driver jobs.

I started in 2015 when I applied to Freightliner who were advertising for trainee drivers all over the country, I progressed through a telephone interview, which allowed me to progress to the pschometric assessments which (I think) I passed to the advanced??? level. I then progressed to final interview and felt I did really well but to this day I am unsure quite what the outcome was. In August 2015 I was due to receive the results when Freightliner announced that they were to make approximately 150 drivers redundant. This was for intermodal and I am still awaiting the results to this day..?

I waited a while and applied to C2C for a shunting position...

In the February 2016 I applied to both Chiltern rail who were advertising for Banbury Depot Drivers, and TFL who wanted Weekend underground drivers.

I received a response from C2C inviting me to assessments. I replied to say I could not make it. I regret this. Around this time I also received an email from Freightliner informing me that it could be a few months before I hear anything regarding the job.

I was invited to assesments at TFL as an underground driver which I accepted, at the same time Chiltern rail were going to invite me to interview but I had already passed to the required standard so progressed to the next stage.

I attended TFL assessment and was invited to a 2nd day which again I progressed to final interview. I failed the interview based on the customer service question, I gave an answer which was regarding the customer being a company but should have involved person to person contact.

I was invited to an final interview with Chiltern rail where I was offered the position. 7 people were offered the job at a new Driver Depot in Banbury. I was over the moon with this and attended the medical, was given a start date but for reasons unknown to me 9 days before I was due to start they contacted me to say that the job was retracted?!!!??

They informed me that although the job had been retracted it was very likely that I would be required in the new year of 2017, but on 28 December I received an email to say the job was no longer on offer.

Feel as though I have been through a tough time of it, not sure how this relates to anybody else but I really hope that with perseverance I will eventually achieve a Trainee Driver role.

 

[stephenhartley]

Thanks for sharing your story and I admire your perseverance. I hope that 2017 brings you the result you are hoping for. I can't offer any specific advice I am afraid, I'm in the process of a couple of applications myself. I can see that you've been a member of this forum for a lot longer than I have; so far I've seen some great advice on here - both highlighting recruitment openings as well as advice and progress reports from the process itself. Hopefully using these and the support of everyone on this forum will get you where you want to be this year! Best of luck...

 

[Andy-mc]

Hello all

I am writing this after getting very close to getting a few........

Sounds like you've been through the rough there mate

important thing is that you don't give up and hang in there, as you've obviously proved your good enough with Chiltern and I think their standards are fairly high. when it comes down to it all you can do is apply and go as far as you can. you'll get there eventually.

 

[Hughqq]

If this is your dream job don't give up, it took me over 3 years to achieve it and it will be just shy of 4 when I finish training and go to depot next week. Absolutely worth the effort

 

[Economist]

There's been quite a few trainee jobs coming up recently so don't give up OP, GTR, Southeastern and ARL in particular have featured in the past couple of months.

I second what Hughqq says, a long wait is surprisingly common, my first application was in Feb 15 and I'm due to start next month. Keep going, you'll get there in the end.

 

[OneTrackMind]

Thank you for sharing your examples. The key here though is not to let them knock your confidence.

As others have already been said, you made the grade with Chiltern and that experience should be taken as a positive and used in future recruitment processes with other TOC's.

The depot at Banbury has faced a mountain of issues, the site threw up unexpected problems with asbestos and badgers, which caused subsequent shortages with funding resulting in the whole scheme being well behind schedule (the original plan is it should of been open by now hence why they recruited when they did!).

Compound this with the fact that Chiltern have just undergone a significant restructuring of top and middle management, along with the proposed loss of onboard catering, some tough commercial decisions have had to of been taken.

Chiltern are not the only franchise to face problems, London Midland are also suffering with some elements of its business in the run up to the franchise ending (not mentioning the D Stock..).

You must remember what my mother always says, you are just a number on a payroll, it is nothing to do with who you are as a person. My point here is don't take the decision to retract the offer personally by any means.

All the best with your future search and looking forward there are many changes of franchises coming in the next 5 years ... with changes brings opportunity.

 

[Gekko5154]

I would say don't feel discouraged. You clearly have the ability to succeed otherwise you wouldn't have passed a number of psychometric tests with various toc's and a mmi. Only due to unforseen developments was your job offer retracted. You're in a good position now as once you apply for a trainee role you will bypass the testing stage and go straight to a dm interview so I would suggest just perfecting your interview techniques and keeping an eye out for trainee driver positions. We've all been through tough times but it's how you get up after a defeat that separates the men from the boys. I'm certain you'll be driving trains in the not too distant future. Good luck my friend!

 

[stevieoz]

Thanks for the encouragement all it really helps.

Are any of you train drivers? Did you encounter similar problems? Is my situation unusual?

I will persevere but it is hard to go back to square one as the toc's dont look for people based on whether they have passed the psychometric tests or not.
So far in fact I have found the most difficult bit is getting through the application sift.
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Also the other thing I didn't mention before is that I cancelled a family holiday to italy and bought a new car based on the fact I was due to start the following week so my advice to anybody about to start is dont plan too much until you have that contract signed.