2 failed application with TPE... is it me?

I recently applied for two roles with TPE, Trainee driver, where I only passed the online stage, and more recently Trainee Conductor which again passed the online assessment and failed to secure an interview.

The train driver job I could understand, but the conductor job is very similar to what I do now, and have been doing for 17yrs, so i thought i might have at least got an interview for that role.

Given that there are no application questions, can I assume this is down to the online assesment that i passed, maybe just with not enough points?

Anyone able to steer me in the right direction?

I personally have started to side with the paper shuffle theory. My experience with GWR with my three attempts.

1st application: conductor passed stage 1 didn't get invited back to stage 2.

2nd application: conductor again. Did online tests didn't hear anything for months. Then got the dreaded email of rejection.

3rd application: Trainee Train Driver - passed everything and now happily waiting in the talent pool since June 2019.

Didn't change a thing on my online profile or application.

My advice keep trying

Not to be rude or offend, there’s been quite a few of these types of threads recently and I’m not sure if people just don’t realise the competition out there, but it is not personal.

I’m not saying that tweaking your CV etc won’t help, but anytime you get a knock back, try and gain some feedback for next time but it’s nothing against you specifically.

For some indeed it does take years, as per some stories on this very forum, but they got there. As said above just keep plugging away and you will get there too.

My company recently advertised for a position....of which there were 4 openings......and they received 1100 applications.

It’s a crazy competitive world and sometimes it’s purely down to timing.

Always need to keep trying though....and keep ‘bookmarks’ or ‘shortcuts’ to all the companies career pages that you’re interest in....and check them almost every time you check your phone.

TPE advertised for trainee drivers in December at all their key stations. I believe there were 30 vacancies in total (another forum member stated this) and there were around 8,500 initial applications for these same jobs. That just confirms the volume of competition out there and sadly many many people out of that number will be disappointed.

Always check your CV after every rejection and see if you can improve it. But most of the time it’s luck of the draw so don’t let a rejection or two put you down.

you just need to keep trying, sometimes there is no rhyme or reason to not getting selected to go further with the recruitment. Sometimes even though you have an excellent score/CV etc someone else just comes along and scores a bit higher. It is a very competitive area for recruitment and hiring managers/HR can be very selective. Recently we advertised 20 vacancies for the forthcoming year, (not having advertised for a couple of years) and we received just over 22000 applications. Took a bit of time to sift !