• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

I failed at the interview stage years ago..trying to work out why?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Topcat999

Member
Joined
30 Jan 2019
Messages
74
OK...

First off, this is not a "why in the hell did they not give me the job"? post.

It's a critical assesment of what might have swayed the decision.

So I went to the interview in 2013. Even the guy interviewing said my cv and answers to their questions was impressive. So a good start.

We get into the interview.

Nothing tricky. Except they did ask me about my journey to the interview that day....so i sprout off as much detail as i can.

Everything seems good. But you can never tell. The guy then talks about the tests on the next stage. What they are about, when i 'll probably go for them and i should have no problems with them. So you kind of get the impression I am at least coming back for the tests. Unless they say this to everyone regardless?

Presume nothing in an interview.

About 10 days later i simply get an email saying i was not successful.

I was shocked. Disappointed. A bit confused.

Then i tried to work out why. Why did it go from seeming a certain pass to a failure?

1) I got an email about 3 days before the interview with an attachment about uniforms. I thought it was strange but never paid any attention to it.

At the end of interview i was talking to another guy there and he said they sent the wrong file out with the email it should have been instructions on how to prepare for the interview. Then the question about my journey made more sense.

Did I come across as not being prepared? I did email explaining this right after but it was never even acknowledged...

2) One question i regret was "tell me why you have applied for this job" and i went on about how my business is failing and I need to do something else right away....before realizing I was making a mistake and kind of corrected it..was the damage done?

3) Whilst my application might have been good enough then....maybe they simply got better?

I do not want this to come across as an arrogant post about how I should have got to the next stage, etc...I did post after my rejection and got flamed to death on it by some.

It would have been nice to have known why my application was unsuccessful. But not many interviewees do this.

So what do you think? All of them? None of them? No idea?
I am going to apply one more time. Obviously it has to be better than the first time.

Thx
 
Last edited:
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

John Bishop

Member
Joined
15 Nov 2018
Messages
579
Location
Perth
2) One question i regret was "tell me why you have applied for this job" and i went on about how my business is failing and I need to do something else right away....

Thx

I think your answer there probably sealed your fate!

With hundreds of applicants to choose from, this kind of answer will only end up with one result.
 

martin2345uk

Established Member
Joined
21 Sep 2011
Messages
2,052
Location
Essex
I think your answer there probably sealed your fate!

With hundreds of applicants to choose from, this kind of answer will only end up with one result.

Yeah I have to agree that probably was a large part of it if not all of it...
 

dctraindriver

Member
Joined
9 Jan 2017
Messages
580
You didn’t do well enough against the other candidates. Guess you’ll make sure you have better answers ready next time...

Don’t beat yourself up too much, when you get the opportunity next time try and grab it.
 

4F89

Member
Joined
17 Aug 2018
Messages
860
Was this for a dmi or mmi? It could be something as minimal as your face didn't fit. So many applicants, so many to turn down, it could have been anything.

But.... don't hold on to the failure and push on.
 

Mgv1349

Member
Joined
10 Oct 2018
Messages
191
Was this for a dmi or mmi? It could be something as minimal as your face didn't fit. So many applicants, so many to turn down, it could have been anything.

But.... don't hold on to the failure and push on.


Face fits... have you looked in the mirror hahahaa
 

Trainguy90

Member
Joined
8 Sep 2016
Messages
109
Location
London
Although it’s not the answer we like to hear, sometimes it genuinely is just a case of there was someone better suited. I had an interview once where there were 15 of us for 3 positions, and after a long application process the other 14 must have been just as good or better than me and it turned out at least 3 of them were

They don’t always give it but in future always ask for feedback and in a way it’s best not to over analyse things
 
Joined
2 Sep 2013
Messages
72
Don't discount it that they might have already picked out x amount of people who they've already decided to give the job to, there's almost zero transparency and feedback these days, why should we all assume that the whole interview/selection process is as squeaky clean and bias free as we're meant to believe? Just keep plugging away and see what happens.
 

$Cm$zS2*

Member
Joined
1 Jan 2019
Messages
31
I think your first error was not applying as many times as possible to each and every Trainee Train Driver Opportunity that came along whilst your Test scores were still worth something..... It's a numbers game.

As Bob used to say: When opportunity knocks, open the door.

Your second was to not research the hell out of the email and it's attachment that they sent you prior to the interview.
 

Topcat999

Member
Joined
30 Jan 2019
Messages
74
I think your first error was not applying as many times as possible to each and every Trainee Train Driver Opportunity that came along whilst your Test scores were still worth something..... It's a numbers game.

As Bob used to say: When opportunity knocks, open the door.

Your second was to not research the hell out of the email and it's attachment that they sent you prior to the interview.
i didn't have any tests.

Did the application and went for the interview. They were talking about coming back in for the tests...but i was not successful.
 

Topcat999

Member
Joined
30 Jan 2019
Messages
74
I think your first error was not applying as many times as possible to each and every Trainee Train Driver Opportunity that came along whilst your Test scores were still worth something..... It's a numbers game.

As Bob used to say: When opportunity knocks, open the door.

Your second was to not research the hell out of the email and it's attachment that they sent you prior to the interview.

as i said in the original email..they sent the wrong attachment...Uniform sizes...should i have studied that?

Did you actually read my post? Two comments you made that were clearly addressed in my OP
 

$Cm$zS2*

Member
Joined
1 Jan 2019
Messages
31
as i said in the original email..they sent the wrong attachment...Uniform sizes...should i have studied that?

Did you actually read my post? Two comments you made that were clearly addressed in my OP

Yep, Ure right, I won't trouble U by trying to help u again
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top