You want to immediately set yourself up as someone who is dishonest and can't follow instructions? They aren't qualities they look for in prospective drivers.
Sit on your hands and wait your time.
I have to agree with this; 'waiting your time' seems to be the
only option. I applied to Thameslink before Christmas. I didn't get past the initial paper sift (and don't know the reason(s) why, maybe never will). Therefore, in the Southern trainee application, I
have to answer the question
Have you previously applied for a Drivers role in the past 6 months and been unsuccessful at any stage of the recruitment process?
(my stress)
with a 'yes'.
Of course, that immediately rejects you from their application process:
We thank you for your interest in applying with us.
We are sorry to inform you that you do not meet the minimum criteria for this vacancy.
The reason for this is as follows:
Your Answers
Have you previously applied for a Drivers role in the past 6 months and been unsuccessful at any stage of the recruitment process? Yes
No mention is made of the fact that the previous application may have been with another TOC/franchise; in any case Southern and Thameslink are both part of GTR. So I have to be safe and assume that the TOC previously applied to is immaterial.
As others have mentioned on these fora in the past, applying to be a driver can be a
very long process - you had better be committed to it for the long haul!
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With
sincere apologies for linking to such "quality" journalism, I thought readers here might be interested in
this story in the
Daily Mail which is doing the rounds in the press today. Also
here in
The Sun.
Appears to be syndicated from the Press Association. Make of it what you will...
Southern Railway recruitment campaign branded `nonsense´ by drivers´ union
By PRESS ASSOCIATION
PUBLISHED: 18:59, 15 January 2017 | UPDATED: 18:59, 15 January 2017
Plans to recruit a pool of 200 “trainee” drivers to help improve services on Southern Railway have sparked a fresh row.
The Government is backing a recruitment campaign by Southern’s owners, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), believing it will end the reliance on overtime.
Members of the drivers’ union Aslef are banning overtime in a dispute over driver-only trains, which is leading to services being cancelled or delayed every day.
A Department of Transport source said the Government will work with GTR to boost recruitment and train hundreds of drivers to cut the need for overtime.
The company will launch an advertising campaign on Monday.
The source said: “GTR has already embarked on the UK´s largest ever driver training programme as part of its objective to maintain a pool of 200 trainee drivers.”
Southern are urging people who want to work part time as drivers to apply, said the source.
More flexible working could open up careers to people from “all parts of society”.
The reliance on overtime has to stop, the Government believes.
Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, said Southern had never employed enough drivers to fulfil its franchise commitments.
“That’s why the company is cancelling so many trains, after eroding the goodwill of its drivers, who are no longer working overtime.
“It is currently cancelling 25% of its services on non-strike days, because of our overtime ban.
“So it would need to recruit 300 more train drivers just to deliver the service it promised to deliver when it won its franchise.
“As for its plan to recruit a new pool of 200 trainees, I suspect, on cost, and retention of knowledge, it would be a nonsense.
“I see the hand of Chris Grayling (Transport Secretary) here, who wants a headline on a quiet Sunday, rather than a sensible plan to resolve the problem at the heart of this industrial dispute.
“And I wonder which trade union these new drivers would join?
“No one has to be a member of a trade union, but 96% of the train drivers in England, Scotland and Wales choose to belong to Aslef, so I look forward to these new drivers joining our trade union.”
A GTR spokesman said: “The campaign is a continuation of what is the UK´s largest recruitment campaign of train drivers ever undertaken to meet our ongoing objective to maintain a pool of 200 trainee drivers across the franchise.
“This helps us bring in new fleets of trains across Thameslink and Great Northern and reduce to a minimum our dependence on rest day working so that we can deliver a more consistent service for our passengers.”
Aslef members on Southern staged three strikes last week and are set to walk out for three more days later this month.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union are also embroiled in a dispute with Southern and will strike again later in January.
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Is it asking if you have applied to southern or just any driver post from other TOCs?
I'd like to know that, too! Have just used GTR's
online message system to ask the question, will post the reply here when I get it.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Also has anyone noticed the job spec has changed slightly? As in depots etc?
Not just slightly, IMHO. I find it fascinating to compare the original spec with the one that's currently published.
Location (was "MetroAll London Depots", now "Southern Routes"), increased salary, re-worded text, a delayed deadline for applications (now "24 Jan 2017 at 11:45PM") and the claim to be
the UK’s biggest ever driver training programme
Something significant changed over the past couple of days, I reckon.
Coupled with a push to the media - the recruitment drive featured in the top story on this evening's BBC South East Today news bulletin (watch it on iplayer
here), as well as on the websites of a number of newspapers; it will be interesting to see what comes off the presses tomorrow morning... According to
an article in The Daily Telegraph
adverts will be placed in newspapers along the Southern route
although the URL referenced,
www.southernrailway.com/traindrivers does not appear to contain any content (yet!).
Must of got it right as i am a driver for them... 