There’s always next time

[Jay_C85]

Hi all,

I’ve followed the forum for around a year now, however this is my first post.

I recently had my DMI with Southern for a trainee driver position, however today was given the bad news that I hadn’t been successful. It was a real hard pill to swallow, as I felt I had done really well. They were impressed with my knowledge, even asked me if I knew any drivers as the terminology I used, they were impressed with. I purely stated my passion and desire to get the role, and even cited here for doing my research.

I got such a good vibe from the interviewers, and felt my competancy examples were good. I only got asked the odd question after each.

I’ve asked for feedback but my question is to anyone that has been in this position, how detailed is it? I’m not expecting war and peace, but failing that I’m going to find it hard to establish where I went wrong.

I guess the light at the end of the tunnel is the DMI was first so I still have my two lives in tact.

 

[baz962]

Hi all,

I’ve followed the forum for around a year now, however this is my first post.

I recently had my DMI with Southern for a trainee driver position, however today was given the bad news that I hadn’t been successful. It was a real hard pill to swallow, as I felt I had done really well. They were impressed with my knowledge, even asked me if I knew any drivers as the terminology I used, they were impressed with. I purely stated my passion and desire to get the role, and even cited here for doing my research.

I got such a good vibe from the interviewers, and felt my competancy examples were good. I only got asked the odd question after each.

I’ve asked for feedback but my question is to anyone that has been in this position, how detailed is it? I’m not expecting war and peace, but failing that I’m going to find it hard to establish where I went wrong.

I guess the light at the end of the tunnel is the DMI was first so I still have my two lives in tact.

Sorry to hear that mate, I too failed my dmi but was for Thameslink after passing all the psychometric's and I also had a great interview where they seemed very happy and kept saying so. Unfortunately my feedback was not too great to be honest, they said my answer's to the question's were not strong enough but could not tell me which question's, also bearing in mind they were good enough to get me through mmi. Don't despair mate you will get you're feedback and be stronger next time.

 

[Spankthemonkey]

You can have an amazing dmi but if they are only taking on 10 people and you gave the 11th best dmi then that's the end.

Feedback these days is next to worthless. HR departments are petrified of being sued so will always give bland answers like "answer not strong/detailed/deep enough" rather than a specific "on question 6 he/she did not display a full enough understanding of....."

 

[baz962]

You can have an amazing dmi but if they are only taking on 10 people and you gave the 11th best dmi then that's the end.

Feedback these days is next to worthless. HR departments are petrified of being sued so will always give bland answers like "answer not strong/detailed/deep enough" rather than a specific "on question 6 he/she did not display a full enough understanding of....."

The only issue with that spank is my two interviewers told me they still had 200 more to recruit, maybe they thought i was gonna be the 201st best lol.

 

[Mowgli]

Hi all,

I’ve followed the forum for around a year now, however this is my first post.

I recently had my DMI with Southern for a trainee driver position, however today was given the bad news that I hadn’t been successful. It was a real hard pill to swallow, as I felt I had done really well. They were impressed with my knowledge, even asked me if I knew any drivers as the terminology I used, they were impressed with. I purely stated my passion and desire to get the role, and even cited here for doing my research.

I got such a good vibe from the interviewers, and felt my competancy examples were good. I only got asked the odd question after each.

I’ve asked for feedback but my question is to anyone that has been in this position, how detailed is it? I’m not expecting war and peace, but failing that I’m going to find it hard to establish where I went wrong.

I guess the light at the end of the tunnel is the DMI was first so I still have my two lives in tact.

Bad luck Jay_C85. I also failed my DMI with Southern. I felt terrible for a while and couldn't bring myself to use the trains for a month. Plus I hardly got any feedback as the HR person said the DM's handwriting was so bad she could barely read it! Happily though I learnt from the experience and passed my DMI interview with another TOC and am in training with them. Don't give up mate just learn from the experience and carry on applying.
Southern only take the riff-raff as trainee drivers anyway!!

 

[baz962]

Bad luck Jay_C85. I also failed my DMI with Southern. I felt terrible for a while and couldn't bring myself to use the trains for a month. Plus I hardly got any feedback as the HR person said the DM's handwriting was so bad she could barely read it! Happily though I learnt from the experience and passed my DMI interview with another TOC and am in training with them. Don't give up mate just learn from the experience and carry on applying.
Southern only take the riff-raff as trainee drivers anyway!!

There are one or two very nice southern people on here might take issue with the riff raff comment mate.

 

[PudseyBearHST]

There are one or two very nice southern people on here might take issue with the riff raff comment mate.

I would have thought all Southern drivers would be offended by that comment.

 

[baz962]

I would have thought all Southern drivers would be offended by that comment.

Quite but they will only see it if they are on here I do not agree with his comment.

 

[Mowgli]

I would have thought all Southern drivers would be offended by that comment.

Fortunately most of the Southern drivers I've come across seem to have a good sense of humour - I think you need it to put up with all the changes going on there - and hopefully will appreciate my comment was not meant seriously!

 

[PudseyBearHST]

Fortunately most of the Southern drivers I've come across seem to have a good sense of humour - I think you need it to put up with all the changes going on there - and hopefully will appreciate my comment was not meant seriously!

Apologies then.

 

[whhistle]

The statement was perhaps said in bitter at the company, not singling out any particular driver.
I've been the same... was really seeing the positives of a company, then when I didn't get the job, saw all the negatives.

I wish people wouldn't use the law to get to companies...
If they didn't pick me because I am a male and they are looking for more females, that's fine. At least I know I was good enough for the job. While it's not right, and not great, I'd prefer to receive that feedback, than the most unhelpful "did not meet the requirements" or "other candidates mosre closely matched our requirements" sort any day.

 

[BTU]

Hi all,

I’ve followed the forum for around a year now, however this is my first post.

I recently had my DMI with Southern for a trainee driver position, however today was given the bad news that I hadn’t been successful. It was a real hard pill to swallow, as I felt I had done really well. They were impressed with my knowledge, even asked me if I knew any drivers as the terminology I used, they were impressed with. I purely stated my passion and desire to get the role, and even cited here for doing my research.

I got such a good vibe from the interviewers, and felt my competancy examples were good. I only got asked the odd question after each.

I’ve asked for feedback but my question is to anyone that has been in this position, how detailed is it? I’m not expecting war and peace, but failing that I’m going to find it hard to establish where I went wrong.

I guess the light at the end of the tunnel is the DMI was first so I still have my two lives in tact.

You dodged a bullet Southern is a dump of a TOC run so badly you'd think it runs by accident.
Back to your question the DMI interview is very in depth I failed one many years ago, without knowing where you went wrong it's hard to help but they are very specific as to the responses you give, they like every question you answer to have a what you did, how you did it and what the outcome was if one of your answers didn't come up to scratch the you don't pass.
The bright side is it doesn't count as a fail and you can apply else where without having to do all the assessments again. Good luck.