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Structured interview- Please help!

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crazy4nath

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Hi everyone.
I passed my assesment with South Eastern last week and got a letter through inviting me for my structured interview on monday!
The pressure is really on now and i'm very nervous.
Does anyone have any idea as to what kind of questions they will ask me?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
 
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Zoe

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You will have to be able to demostrate the various competencies by providing them real life examplies from previous experience in these situations. For example you may be asked for an example of when you've had to deal with an emergency situation. Do not try and use hyphothetical examples as they can probe quite deeply with their questions and you can get caught out.
 

crazy4nath

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ah ok then. I've been looking through other posts on this sight and got some questions for driver and manager interviews. will the conductor interview be similar?
 

TDK

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You will have to be able to demostrate the various competencies by providing them real life examplies from previous experience in these situations. For example you may be asked for an example of when you've had to deal with an emergency situation. Do not try and use hyphothetical examples as they can probe quite deeply with their questions and you can get caught out.

You get those sort of questions in the first interview, the structured interview is to dig deeper to ascertain whether you are a prime candidate for the position, just be honest and don't let the interviewer drag you into a hole, the interviewer will be friendly and try to get you to open up your thoughts about the reasoning for why you want the job etc. The interviewer will also ask you questions that you feel are irrelevant however all the questions are always relevant. If a question is repeated it means the interviewer may have not been happy with your first answer and are giving you a chance to redeem your self. Don't be nervous, don't play with your pen or fiddle with anything on the desk, always keep eye contact with the interviewer. If you are visibly nervous this is not a good sign so relax and take it in your stride.
 

Zoe

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You get those sort of questions in the first interview
I was under the impression that the above person hadn't had an interview yet as they had just gone through the assesment stage. I'd have thought a competency based interview would be the next stage.
 

crazy4nath

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oooh thats oing to be hard lol.
I've been nervous since the minute i opened the letter lol.
I was told when i passed my assesment that i would be contacted to attend a structured interview with the conductor manager at ramsgate and then if all goes well i should start training in May
 

BestWestern

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Hi, congratulations with your progress so far :D

An interview with a real crew manager is a good thing, much better than being stuck playing stupid games with a 'Recruitment' person who has no experience or knowledge of the job. You won't feel the need to play up to meet their artificial standards and spend the whole time worrying about what it is that they are really watching for! So the best advice for starters is to be yourself, be natural and be at ease! It's certainly advantageous to come across as calm and relaxed - remember that the job you are applying for has being able to deal with difficult situations as a central requirement. This isn't always easy in an interview of course, but I doubt it will be as daunting as you anticipate once you get going. There are really two areas that the role of a Guard encompasses, customer service and responsibility. Gather all the relevant experiences and abilities that you can, and work through it in your mind so you have some 'ammunition' ready for when this comes up. Do some research on the company and things like their operating area, primary stations, parent company and so on; you won't be expected to be an expert but they will be hoping for a little interest I imagine. Having a few sensible questions of your own is always good too, focussing on the job itself and avoiding sounding too eager about things like the salary and time off etc. Try your best to give the impression of being a friendly, approachable and level-headed person, and you'll be fine!

Very best of luck :D
 

TDK

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I was under the impression that the above person hadn't had an interview yet as they had just gone through the assesment stage. I'd have thought a competency based interview would be the next stage.

Generally you have the standard interview on the day of the psychometric testing then after that you are invited to a strutured interview with HR, maybe this company is different from ther ones I have worked with, the structured interview is different from the interview you get when you take the initial tests generally Zoe
 

crazy4nath

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ok excellent, so it's not quite going to be the interrigation i'm thinking then lol. I'm trying to think of examples of when I've been in an emergency situation etc. The only thing i can think of is when i saved my son from choking a few months ago. Do you think that is a good example or will they want something more work based?
 

Zoe

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ok excellent, so it's not quite going to be the interrigation i'm thinking then
Some companies use the term structured interview for competency based interviews. Did you have a competency based interview at your assesment day? If not I'd be very surprised if you don't have one at some point. Some companies may also combine the type of questions TDK referred to and the compentency based questions into a single interview.
 
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island

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Best advice for structured/competency-based interviews is never to answer a question straight away. Write down the key points if you can and take a minute to gather your thoughts.
 

Zoe

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Best advice for structured/competency-based interviews is never to answer a question straight away.
Indeed, I know of a case where a candidate was asked for an example of a competency and they gave the first one they could think of. When the interviewer started to ask probing questions the candidate thought of a better example they could have used. The interviewer refused to allow them to change examples and it seems that they were unable to give sufficient answers using their first example as they didn't get the job.
 

island

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And it's that sort of nonsense that makes CBIs drive me around the bend! And I'm going to be on the interviewer side of several soon ;(
 

crazy4nath

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I didn't have an interview at my assessment.
I did my ticket selling/ checking test then the verbal assessment.
After that is was the concentration/ dot test and then the roll play.
Then they told us we'd passed and we would be going for an interview with the local manager and hopefully start training in may
 

TDK

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Best advice for structured/competency-based interviews is never to answer a question straight away. Write down the key points if you can and take a minute to gather your thoughts.

so, you take a minute to answer a question - great if you took a minute to put the brake in as a driver or drop the brake in an emergency as a guard. I really do not know where some of this comes from.
 

strange6

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ok excellent, so it's not quite going to be the interrigation i'm thinking then lol. I'm trying to think of examples of when I've been in an emergency situation etc. The only thing i can think of is when i saved my son from choking a few months ago. Do you think that is a good example or will they want something more work based?

Personally, I think that's an excellent situation for demonstrating a coolness under pressure
 

crazy4nath

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excellent, i'll use that then. I've done shift work before, I used to help a blind lady alot at my old job so thats an example of assisting a member of the public. Does anyone know of any other things i may need to think of situations for?
 

Zoe

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They may well want examples of teamwork and responsibility for safety.
 

crazy4nath

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hm. Every job iv ever done and college involved team work. Not sure about being in charge of safety though
 

Zoe

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Every job iv ever done and college involved team work.
"Give me an example of when you have had to work as a team, what was the goal of the team? what was the outcome? What was your contribution to the team? How did the team achieve that goal?" That is the type of question you may well be asked, just saying your were on a team will not likely be sufficient.
 

crazy4nath

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I see. This is all really helpfull thankyou all so much!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Thank you all for all your help, went to my interview today and im pretty sure it went really well!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
i got it! Got the phone call 2day! Thanks everyone!
 

TDK

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I see. This is all really helpfull thankyou all so much!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Thank you all for all your help, went to my interview today and im pretty sure it went really well!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
i got it! Got the phone call 2day! Thanks everyone!

Well done - good luck with the new job
 
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