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Grand Central - Trainee Train Drivers (Various)

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Chuchu

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Did they actually say in the email that you live too far away?
Nah, it was the same generic email that you received. I was just guessing that the distance might have been the first thing to be rejected for, as I was relocating for the job. For me it was Bradford saying no, probably Sunderland will follow soon.
 
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Khalil773

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A nice way of saying "you don't meet the requirements" lol., I'm a no, location primarily
Yeah, it sucks. The thing is, once you know what part of the application didn't meet the requirements you can then improve on them. If they don't tell you, then there's not much you can do.
 

Stigy

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Yeah, it sucks. The thing is, once you know what part of the application didn't meet the requirements you can then improve on them. If they don't tell you, then there's not much you can do.
Chances are it’s just not feasible to offer feedback, which, in all honesty will probably only tell you that you didn’t score highly enough in the online assessments. I doubt whether at this stage anyone’s application would have even been seen by a human. It’s easy to give interview feedback because there’s a lot fewer candidates to get through, and this can be done by the interviewing manager via HR.

The initial assessment outcome doesn’t tell you you’re unsuitable, just that there were thousands of applicants, and not everybody can get through to the next stage. Realistically though, those who don’t live within an hour of the depot, are easy to sift straight away, although it’s not guaranteed that’s the reason.
 

Raikkonen7

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Chances are it’s just not feasible to offer feedback, which, in all honesty will probably only tell you that you didn’t score highly enough in the online assessments. I doubt whether at this stage anyone’s application would have even been seen by a human. It’s easy to give interview feedback because there’s a lot fewer candidates to get through, and this can be done by the interviewing manager via HR.

The initial assessment outcome doesn’t tell you you’re unsuitable, just that there were thousands of applicants, and not everybody can get through to the next stage. Realistically though, those who don’t live within an hour of the depot, are easy to sift straight away, although it’s not guaranteed that’s the reason.
Were there online assessments for this application? I though it was just cover letter and CV?
 

Stigy

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In that case, to add to my last post, disregard it for this TOC. Although there will naturally still be potentially thousands of applicants so feedback on that basis probably wouldn’t feasible anyway. To be honest though, the same sort of applies in terms of suitability. There are probably hundreds of suitable candidates with near identical CVs, but not everyone can get through.

Probably, as you are everywhere, haha ;)
Like a rash.
 

DriverEight

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Apologies, I thought there were. I must be thinking of another thread.
The LNER application has the online assessments. That's what puzzles me about the Grand Central rejections. Surely they can't have read through all the CVs and covering letters, so is there another factor at play? I seem to remember that there was very little to the actual application form, so what are these rejections based on? I suppose we'll never know
 

Raikkonen7

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The LNER application has the online assessments. That's what puzzles me about the Grand Central rejections. Surely they can't have read through all the CVs and covering letters, so is there another factor at play? I seem to remember that there was very little to the actual application form, so what are these rejections based on? I suppose we'll never know
I could be entirely wrong but perhaps they look at say 100 applications and when they’ve found enough to fulfil their quota, they just disregard any others.
 

DriverEight

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I could be entirely wrong but perhaps they look at say 100 applications and when they’ve found enough to fulfil their quota, they just disregard any others.
I don't think that's likely. They will expect hundreds, possibly thousands of applications, so if you pick the first 100 you probably miss out some amazing candidates that are further down the line. There'll be some sort of automatic filter that rejects a whole wave of applications, possibly based on your postcode and distance. For instance, you can probably drive the 45 miles from Sheffield or Manchester to Bradford in an hour, but probably not at rush hour. So, for all you may think you live within 60 mins of your chosen location, they may not agree with you. This is, of course, just speculation.

This begs the question... Who or what defines 60 minutes?
 

skyhigh

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The LNER application has the online assessments. That's what puzzles me about the Grand Central rejections. Surely they can't have read through all the CVs and covering letters, so is there another factor at play? I seem to remember that there was very little to the actual application form, so what are these rejections based on? I suppose we'll never know
Arriva recruitment always seemed a little bit random - I know someone who applied for the same position at the same Arriva TOC 6 months apart with an identical CV and cover letter. Filtered out the first time and got the job the second time. I'm sure there's some logic with the initial sift though (once things like location are taken into account)
 

Driver068

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31 May 2017
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Are there any Grand Central drivers from either depot reading this post who maybe able to PM me please.

On a separate note, those that have applied for the trainees role, for either depot did the advertisement give you an option to relocate.

Am i right in saying LNER and XC did not want applicants to apply if needed to relocate.
 

Chuchu

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13 Nov 2020
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Are there any Grand Central drivers from either depot reading this post who maybe able to PM me please.

On a separate note, those that have applied for the trainees role, for either depot did the advertisement give you an option to relocate.

Am i right in saying LNER and XC did not want applicants to apply if needed to relocate.
The advertisement for XC said nothing about relocation but also it did not mention the 1 hour travel time so I thought that means they are open to the idea of relocating. LNER on the other hand, had this written as a requirement and also, if you wanted to apply, the first two questions were about age and distance and if you said no to any of those two, you would immediately get a reply saying that you are not able to go ahead with the application.
 

DriverEight

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Are the only people that have heard anything been applying for Bradford?
No, I applied for Sunderland. I got the give us a couple of weeks reply. If you think you might have missed it, the sender was "system administrator", so maybe it's in your spam
 

DriverEight

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How is a covering letter scored ?
The only way that a computer can score a letter is if its programmed to pick out certain words. Punctuality, service and safety will gain points. The problem with that is you could write "I hate punctuality, can't be bothered with customer service and I treat safety as a joke", and you'd still score well
 

Choooochoooo

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The only way that a computer can score a letter is if its programmed to pick out certain words. Punctuality, service and safety will gain points. The problem with that is you could write "I hate punctuality, can't be bothered with customer service and I treat safety as a joke", and you'd still score well
Well if that’s true it just goes to show what a joke the system potentially could be
 

Stigy

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The only way that a computer can score a letter is if its programmed to pick out certain words. Punctuality, service and safety will gain points. The problem with that is you could write "I hate punctuality, can't be bothered with customer service and I treat safety as a joke", and you'd still score well
Indeed, but people are unlikely to do so (I’d imagine....why would they? Lol), which means that potentially it’s not a bad way of sifting applications. I reckon if they detect “NTS” it’ll flash up on a manager’s laptop somewhere :D
 

Stigy

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Well if that’s true it just goes to show what a joke the system potentially could be
If you’re a business with several thousand applications to sift through, it’s just not feasible for all of them to be dealt with by a human from the outset, until a lot (majority?) have been sifted.
 

Raikkonen7

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Anyone get an email saying:
We would, however, like to make you aware of another role that may well fit with your skills and experience - please find the link attached (insert link to role) and would encourage you to apply.
 
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