[wessexen]

I thought I'll update the thread as you can probably guess, a week after the interview, I've heard this much:

" "

So at the moment, I am just a bit worried, I've emailed my recruiter and got this response:


" "


So, I'm wondering what to do next. My concern is that if I ring them to find out, then I get the answerphone and I do not like to answer to answer phones (as I do not know what to say and besides, I'm also worried that what I may say, could be broadcasted in the office! - Ok, so I have a tiny confidence issue.)

Any ideas of the next step? Its fine if I knew, then I could ask questions but when you don't know, its hard to work out what to do or even second guess things. Again, I would appreciate the feedback

[LCC106]

Hi Wessexen - words missing from quotation marks, so slightly difficult to advise. However, 2 thoughts:

1 = write down what you want to say so that you have something to prompt you or to read from (trying to sound natural) when you speak to either a person or an answer phone
2 = if the phone goes to answer phone and you feel uncomfortable at the idea of talking to it, just hang up before you hear the beep.

[wessexen]

Originally Posted by LCC106

Hi Wessexen - words missing from quotation marks, so slightly difficult to advise. However, 2 thoughts:

It was deliberate to say "I've not recieved a response yet."

[LCC106]

Ha ha! Sorry. The above still applies though...

[wessexen]

I shouldn't say this, but I eventually bit the bullet with the answer machine and it only gave me 5 seconds.......! Unless my iphone played up. (Use the Nokia next time I think!)

And my god, I've never been soo nervous in my life on the phone, its bad enough I have got Asperger's Syndrome and worried about screwing up my chances, but I guess rail recruitment departments may not understand that, which is fair play as AS affect people differently.


.. Unless everything is silent because of Easter. Still, I try to be polite, understanding and sincere with communications and I don't like being pushy, so I am hoping it all counts for me, not against (Probably determined by the sounds of things).

[Clip]

One week isnt long - you dont know how many days worth of interviews they had lined up so just be patient and dont panic about things over Easter. Have a nice time and if you hear nothing by next friday then give them a ring.

Dont fret - as they say - no news is good news.

[wessexen]

Originally Posted by Clip

Dont fret - as they say - no news is good news.

IT was all bad news

I got an email today with this:

"Thank you for attending the interview for the position of Platform Assistant Chichester.

Unfortunately, I regret to inform you have not been successful in your application for this position. I would like to thank you for the time and effort you put in to the interview. "

TBH, I am quite shocked and upset if I am honest, but I wish I knew earlier.
If I am honest, I wish I could of gone into the job, but it does make me feel, what do I do now? Suggestions?

I've already asked for feedback and asked for other positions, because I've done all this work and its amounted to nothing in the end.

[Sparks169]

wessexen, It's not amounted to nothing. It's all experience.

I must say you are very passionate about wanting a position in the industry. I work for Southern and they are a great company to work for.

Don't think that it is something you are doing wrong or that there was anything wrong with your interview at all, interviewers have to look at who they feel is most suitable for the job and who they think really wants the job and who will be reliable for them.

Confidence and experience isn't what it's all about, in all honesty the candidates who applied for my position (Ticket Office) were all big-headed, over-confident people who had years of experience in the railway even pre-privatisation. Some had been in management and head office of alot of other TOCs. Where as I only had a few years experience working through an agency. But I ultimately got the job over them for whatever reasons they saw me as the most suitable candidate and was passionate about the job.

The trouble is that alot of people are turning to railway jobs at the moment because of the benefits and job security etc, that interviewing managers have a tough job on their hands to choose the best candidate out of many who give good interviews.

All I will say is that there are always job vacancies on the railway, and failing to obtain a position a couple of times is not a bad thing, it is all experience. Ultimately interviewing managers will look for honesty, reliability, flexibility and passion. A small amount of confidence is key in order to hold it together during an interview, but too much is guaranteed to fail you.

Expressing a passion for customer service, team work, innovation, reliability and honesty are a big plus. If you know the station or depot your applying for, do some research and give them specific reasons why you have chosen that area. Visit the station/depot before your interview, speak with some of the staff and get an idea of what it's like to work there. You can then say you have done this in the interview and this shows enthusiasm, passion and effort. Not that you just want any old job on the railway, be specific to what your applying for and why you want to be there.

I sincerely hope you persevere with this and I have no doubt you will be a fantastic asset to the area you join!

The best of luck to you!

[wessexen]

Originally Posted by Sparks169

wessexen, It's not amounted to nothing. It's all experience.

I must say you are very passionate about wanting a position in the industry. I work for Southern and they are a great company to work for.

Don't think that it is something you are doing wrong or that there was anything wrong with your interview at all, interviewers have to look at who they feel is most suitable for the job and who they think really wants the job and who will be reliable for them.

Confidence and experience isn't what it's all about, in all honesty the candidates who applied for my position (Ticket Office) were all big-headed, over-confident people who had years of experience in the railway even pre-privatisation. Some had been in management and head office of alot of other TOCs. Where as I only had a few years experience working through an agency. But I ultimately got the job over them for whatever reasons they saw me as the most suitable candidate and was passionate about the job.

The trouble is that alot of people are turning to railway jobs at the moment because of the benefits and job security etc, that interviewing managers have a tough job on their hands to choose the best candidate out of many who give good interviews.

All I will say is that there are always job vacancies on the railway, and failing to obtain a position a couple of times is not a bad thing, it is all experience. Ultimately interviewing managers will look for honesty, reliability, flexibility and passion. A small amount of confidence is key in order to hold it together during an interview, but too much is guaranteed to fail you.

Expressing a passion for customer service, team work, innovation, reliability and honesty are a big plus. If you know the station or depot your applying for, do some research and give them specific reasons why you have chosen that area. Visit the station/depot before your interview, speak with some of the staff and get an idea of what it's like to work there. You can then say you have done this in the interview and this shows enthusiasm, passion and effort. Not that you just want any old job on the railway, be specific to what your applying for and why you want to be there.

I sincerely hope you persevere with this and I have no doubt you will be a fantastic asset to the area you join!

The best of luck to you!

Thank you for the kind words, it its admittedly very helpful, the thing I don't understand is that I got a job at Brighton which to me was incredibly easy although for some reason, it never happened. One position I didn't get considered for and I know why I think, distance, then this, etc.

The good news, since my last update, I've gone and applied for other roles, at the moment, I've had another interview with Southern (Telephone) for a "Olympic Customer Care Assistant", which caught my sister and myself out, which I subsequently passed. Interestingly, I was told I failed the application to begin with, but with an email dispatch to someone, I told later I passed (as they couldn't see why.)

I've also cheekily used my mums address (because my parents are divorced, they both live at separate addresses, well, 20 miles from each other) and I've applied at Soton Central and I don't know if I should also apply for another position, but I have a near complete application for Graduate management, because I did got to university and get a degree, it doesn't specify what, so I thought I'll try it.

What I found is that I am getting considered, which is very good news because I am doing something right (is it because I am more like a book author when writing out my applications and making best use of the 4000 character limit? Or is it because I can explain myself better on paper than in person?). But the interviews are a different question.

As my helper and myself both thought, nothing could go wrong, until it does. We both thought I would have a standing chance because of the effort and work put into the pre planning stages. Well, the folder is the thickest for any client on their books and that's in half a year.
Still, I've been offered feedback, which is good, but whatever I did, I have not made the same mistake, so I think it maybe because accidently (due to AS), I may of sounded too big headed and overly confident, mainly because I had a number of advantages I feel, like living just over 1.5 miles away, unless someone knows the exact distanced from Fishbourne(Sussex) to Chichester which is easily walkable, despite the fact I use a car most of the time these days!

Maybe because we ended up talking mostly about trains... even I was trying to stop that because I really wanted to express my interest in the position.



Now, here is a thought for you, I applied for a position about 1 and a half miles from me and failed badly. I've also applied for a position about 23.4 miles away (Google maps!), over an hour's travelling time at the worst time of the day (Got to deal with 2 bottle necks on the A27, Aurndel and Worthing), for a temporary position in Worthing that looks to be quite similar in some aspects especially for the assessments (both I've done already!) and I passed an interview.....

how does that work!?

[Clip]

I never saw your reply about the rejection so sorry to hear about that.

Its very difficult to tell you where you may be going wrong because each interviewer is looking for a certain something and no matter how much you plan and no matter what you prepare for before hand its all really down to the interviewer - and even then they just may have liked someone better who may have a little bit more experience then you have.


I will say one thing though - Do not change your address when applying for the same company. To me this looks like you are being devious and underhand because you think it may give you a btter chance if they dont think its you again.

No one minds how many times you apply for jobs but if you keep getting rejected then maybe the railway just isnt for you and you should look for another channel to go down with your career. Not nice to say this but whilst on the one hand you seem keen and eager to work withing in the industry but on the other hand it comes accross as far to eager to please and maybe this is what came accross in your interview - things like this could well turn your interviewer off you. Short and to the point is what I like and if I feel someone is going on too long with an answer then i start to get bored and picture what they would be like at work.

Being chatty is great in a CS role but it also comes with its own problem when staff spend aan awful amount of time chatting to each other and not getting on with their job. Try and work on that aspect and make sure you prepare and know when your talking too much so that you can reign it in.

But good luck with everything once again.

[wessexen]

Originally Posted by Clip

I will say one thing though - Do not change your address when applying for the same company.

I did that for one reason, there are 2 people with the same initials here and plus the post is known to be unreliable, so that's why. Its even better when the mail goes to my dad and not me (because of that initials problem). I should of said that the position is with SWT and the last application I had, the letter didn't arrive here anyway. (And yes, I did try to chase it!)
Its a bit odd really and I don't know why.

And as to my message earlier, they've offered me a face to face feedback session.. that I am surprised as I always thought they would send me a list of items saying "this is what you did wrong, this is how I recommend you "should" do it in the future."

[Sparks169]

Originally Posted by wessexen

And as to my message earlier, they've offered me a face to face feedback session.. that I am surprised as I always thought they would send me a list of items saying "this is what you did wrong, this is how I recommend you "should" do it in the future."

Yes, I don't know about other TOCs but Southern will offer you a face to face feedback session on your application and interview. They are usually very helpful and you can get to know what they are looking for and how to better approach the interview next time around.

[Clip]

Originally Posted by wessexen

I did that for one reason, there are 2 people with the same initials here and plus the post is known to be unreliable, so that's why. Its even better when the mail goes to my dad and not me (because of that initials problem). I should of said that the position is with SWT and the last application I had, the letter didn't arrive here anyway. (And yes, I did try to chase it!)
Its a bit odd really and I don't know why.

And as to my message earlier, they've offered me a face to face feedback session.. that I am surprised as I always thought they would send me a list of items saying "this is what you did wrong, this is how I recommend you "should" do it in the future."

Thats good of them to give you face to face feedback - though I dont remember them doing that for me when I last went for a job with them. But listen and note down what they say then use that to work on your future interviews.

[wessexen]

Originally Posted by Sparks169

Yes, I don't know about other TOCs but Southern will offer you a face to face feedback session on your application and interview. They are usually very helpful and you can get to know what they are looking for and how to better approach the interview next time around.

You are right and when I first went in, I must be honest, I was expecting it to be pretty pretty bad and all my faults showed up. When I got the feedback it was more the opposite. In fact, very very encouraging, which is a lot lot better. The only reason why, its because I didn't give my evidence clear on 2 examples of how I resolved a situation and the voluntary workplace I work in is a particular example. If I used one situation at University (where I sort of lead a group by example to encourage the group to work, which it did), then I probably would of passed by miles! I also need to change some of my examples as well.

As it was, I failed only by 2.5 points, that's what I was told, however, when you have got competition THIS fierce, that matters. What is also helpful is that my helper is also working with the manager so that may be really helpful.

[Clip]

Thats really good that they let you know what it was you failed on and how. Now work at that and im sure you will get onto the railway very soon.