notadriver
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I like to hear from anyone who has been long term unemployed and walked straight into a drivers job? Any success stories out there?
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Success stories dole queue to train driver
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notadriver
Established Member
- Joined
- 1 Oct 2010
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- 3,735
woah hope you don't regret it
HarleyDavidson
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- 23 Aug 2014
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I think you have to be of the right mindset, even with just under 30 years on the "plate" there are times when I get extremely bored & depressed, especially doing what I would most certainly say is London depots work & spend all day doing suburban work, whilst a London driver spends all day out in the sticks & passes back! Yet there are times when I love it and wouldn't change it for the world.
It's a job that has so many highs & lows such as fatality.
There have been many times when I've thought about chucking the job in, transferring to another company,but family makes things exceptionally difficult, also having had contact with others who've made the jump, sometimes they have found that the grass isn't as green on the other side of the fence as they'd thought.
We've had just a few who've slung the job in & only two who have gone through the training only to fail abysmally at the final hurdle,not once but twice and once that happens it's end of story. The last one was a BT engineer who was a bit cocky & thought he was the big I am and made the fatal mistake of arguing with an instructor at the training centre, where the golden rule is "What they say is gospel & if they say black is white, then black is white". He didn't make it and went out the door.
If you are thinking about joining the railway do think carefully about it, in that you must be able to deal with:
1. Instruction & authority, you need to be able to accept that there will be times when you have to do things that you don't want to & be able to follow instructions to the letter.
2. Be able to put family & social life on hold, that means not drinking alcohol as a guide 12 hours prior to booking on for duty or participating in the odd joint. Drink & Drugs testing is carried out regularly and the slightest hint of either will have you not only out the door, but possibly in court.
3. Be able to deal with shifts, as pointed out you can be required to start at anytime of day or night! Shifts can be very long or nicely short, but it's the intensity that can be the real killer, you may have a 10hr day with few stops & high speed running, but conversely you could have a 10hr day with well over 100 stops.
4. You need to be disciplined and focussed and be able to maintain a good level of concentration & on your own for long periods & no you can't have a phone/radio playing music or kindle/tablet on in the cab whilst you're going along. Remember you could have over 1000 passenger on board or over 1000 tonnes behind you, it's an awesome level of responsibility.
If you think that you can deal with those, then by all means go for it, don't just think of it for money, it's a career that can be highly enjoyable & open a lot of doors (literally
) to other positions, but it's a way of life & if you have an interest in the railways then that will help you.
It's a job that has so many highs & lows such as fatality.
There have been many times when I've thought about chucking the job in, transferring to another company,but family makes things exceptionally difficult, also having had contact with others who've made the jump, sometimes they have found that the grass isn't as green on the other side of the fence as they'd thought.
We've had just a few who've slung the job in & only two who have gone through the training only to fail abysmally at the final hurdle,not once but twice and once that happens it's end of story. The last one was a BT engineer who was a bit cocky & thought he was the big I am and made the fatal mistake of arguing with an instructor at the training centre, where the golden rule is "What they say is gospel & if they say black is white, then black is white". He didn't make it and went out the door.
If you are thinking about joining the railway do think carefully about it, in that you must be able to deal with:
1. Instruction & authority, you need to be able to accept that there will be times when you have to do things that you don't want to & be able to follow instructions to the letter.
2. Be able to put family & social life on hold, that means not drinking alcohol as a guide 12 hours prior to booking on for duty or participating in the odd joint. Drink & Drugs testing is carried out regularly and the slightest hint of either will have you not only out the door, but possibly in court.
3. Be able to deal with shifts, as pointed out you can be required to start at anytime of day or night! Shifts can be very long or nicely short, but it's the intensity that can be the real killer, you may have a 10hr day with few stops & high speed running, but conversely you could have a 10hr day with well over 100 stops.
4. You need to be disciplined and focussed and be able to maintain a good level of concentration & on your own for long periods & no you can't have a phone/radio playing music or kindle/tablet on in the cab whilst you're going along. Remember you could have over 1000 passenger on board or over 1000 tonnes behind you, it's an awesome level of responsibility.
If you think that you can deal with those, then by all means go for it, don't just think of it for money, it's a career that can be highly enjoyable & open a lot of doors (literally
) to other positions, but it's a way of life & if you have an interest in the railways then that will help you.
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