nom de guerre
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- Joined
- 24 Nov 2015
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I think we’re basically agreeing with each other in that what you’re calling a ‘technical’ question I’m calling a ‘rules’ question.
Agreed
My interviewers used the term 'technical'. I was only asked one at each interview and the subject of both was essentially 'slightly obscure local knowledge' rather than rules per se.
My own experience has always been that they focus on a particular rule and I’ve never had any more or any less than two but I think LOMs are given a fair bit of latitude in how they conduct interviews and there must be quite a lot of variation in different areas. I had an internal signaller interview* in the last 6 weeks which took the following format:
- 2x overview questions (“Why do you want this role?” and “Tell us a little about the location you’ve applied for”)
- 8x NTS scenarios (all based on signalling examples as per your post, none of which were particularly challenging and each was obvious what they were looking for)
- 2x safety questions (“Explain the NR safety vision” and “Tell us about a time when you’ve made a safety intervention”)
- 2x rules/technical (“Explain the procedure for signalling a train over a failed AHB crossing under local control with an attendant” and another I can’t remember)
Interviews I’ve had for other roles in NR have been broadly similar but also completely different, if that makes any sense.
*left the grade a few years ago and found the grass isn’t actually greener elsewhere. But hey ho...
Similarly, I was only asked one safety question but I included examples of safety interventions I'd made as part of my answer so perhaps a follow-up wasn't required.
Welcome back, by the way!