At Leeds your first and foremost priority would be Despatching trains. 2nd priorities would be Customer Services and Station Security.
At Leeds the Despatch process consists of waiting until c ~2-3 minutes before the train is due to depart, turning a key which indicates to the signaller that the train is ready to depart so he can clear the signal at the end of the platform and set up a path out of Leeds. Train is only ready to depart if it has full traincrew, and there are no fitters or cleaners still working on it, as would be indicated by a "Not to be moved board", and if you can see for yourself that the train has no obvious problems. The signaller needs to know the train is ready to depart before he can clear the signal at the end of any platform.
At the time of departure, raising the Despatch Batton to the Conductor when all doors are clear of passengers, equipment, ramps are clear, all wheelchair passengers are on, etc. train is safe to depart and if the signal at the end of the platform is showing proceed. Once the doors are closed, you check that they have all closed properly, that there are no doors that are like half-shut, or closed and have trapped people's clothing, etc. You must satisified the doors are shut and that there are no passengers in danger should the train move (e.g. passengers who may have fallen between the train and the platform edge - it has happened, or more commonly passengers leaning against the train). Once you are satisfied the train is still safe to depart, you turn a key which sets the signal at the end of the platform to show "RA" in the theatre box. Only when the driver sees the RA can he depart.
The job is basically all about getting rid of trains as quickly as is safely possible. At Leeds you will be running multiple platforms at once so will have to multi task and normally be thinking 3 trains ahead. If there are two trains out at the same time but on different platforms (could be timetabled, could be due to delays) and you need to get them both out then you'd have to use hand held radios to organise any available Depespatcher to assist.
Speaking of hand held radios they are used very heavily in despatch jobs at busy stations. Radios are used to report delays, speak to network rail (who update the CIS Screens and make special announcements if you feel there is a need for one), report a lack of train crew (missing driver or guard - could be many reasons, late on duty, late off previous work, late off PNB, etc - but train cannot leave without driver and guard, some trains need multiple train crew before they can be despatched
When despatching trains you'll have customers and passengers coming to you asking you questions, and the range of questions is large, they can ask how to get to anywhere, it helps if you memorise all the train times from Leeds and all the places they stop at, so you can answer from memory, but you'll get the odd question that requires a connection so you'll have to radio through to the customer info desk (where they have a PC) so they can radio connections time info across to you, but 90% of the time it will be when your stood next to the train your depatching and they will ask "is this the train to ????" and the answer is either yes or no, you'd be suprised how often the answer is no and how many times you would have saved a passenger from getting on the wrong train! If Leeds is like most other busy stations you'll also get masses of passengers getting on the wrong train due to the CIS screens showing wrong information, and it would be your job to get them all off and onto the right train, or you'd end up with 100+ passengers on the wrong train. You'll also get passengers running at the train at the last minute, but your job is to get the train out as quickly as possible, so the skill involved is to handsignal the guard to close all the doors except his local door, holding that just for the last few late runners, then giving the guard the handsignal to close his local door when you've decided enough is enough then give the RA to the Driver leaving the last of the late runners behind. You can only hold it for so long, definetely no more than about 30 seconds really unless it looks like a gang of trouble makers on a late night train (e.g. drunks) then you'd just want to get rid of them by any means as possible and hold it longer! If passengers swear or argue about it then you can simply radio the British Transport Police to come over and deal with them. Some passengers will try to follow you around shouting at you while your trying to do your job despatching trains, just because they missed their train, you simply cannot allow this to happen, as your doing a critical job and if they distract you you can cause trains to run late or despatch a train against a red, so get the Police IMMEDIATELY. But if you delay a train you'd get a delay form to fill in if you cause any train to run late but would only get discipline if you repeatedly do it.
Of cause the main trap to avoid falling into is "missing trains" you've got to be at your train c 2~3 mins before departure to kick off the despatch process by giving the signaller the Train Ready to Start so if you keep getting to your trains late you will cause delay, the signaller needs time to set up a path so he can clear the platform starter signal otherwise your going to be waiting longer for that signal way beyond departure time.
The other trap to avoid falling into is raising the despatch batton against a red signal. This is easily done due to distractions (there are loads of distractions - radio going off, passengers asking you questions, etc), and if your caught by the wrong persons, your in serious trouble, as much trouble as a driver would get in for having a SPAD. In fact it is the one thing you can get sacked for, so this is of utmost importance.
You'll also speak to the signaller in this role often, more often than a driver would in fact, for many reasons - any delay to a train your despatching and the signaller has to know immediately. You may also speak to the signaller if you want to change the platform a train is coming in on (for despatch reasons or to make it easier for passengers), or ask the signaller where a set of Empty Stock is that you need to despatch, or to put the signal back to danger if there is no driver. You may have to contact the signaller to put a block on the line, either due to a tresspasser, or a piece of equipment has fallen on the line, or the line needs to be blocked so a fitter can work on an adjacent train. You need to speak to the signaller if you've been waiting over 5 minutes for him to clear the signal at the end of the platform (or 2 minutes after departure time). You'll also often have to deal with Control, as they often radio through alterations - these can be unit swaps (unit that *was* going to work the service is terminated, all passengers off and onto the correct unit - control will give you unit numbers and headcodes, and its up to locate the correct unit and platform and radio through to network rail to correct the CIS screens as the screens may be showing wrong information, and of cause you've then got to despatch it). Unit splits can also happen - 2x units come in, first unit to split and go empty to depot for maintenance or work another service so get passengers off it, other unit to carry on with passengers on service it came in on. But now I'm going more in depth into the more advanced side of the despatch role, which you learn in the training, for the interview its best to concentrate on the routine side of the job.
Training is probably somewhere around 1 or 2 weeks in the classroom doing induction and rules (there aren't many rules to learn in this role really), then you'd probably spend about 4 weeks on the job training, under instruction, then a passout day at the end of the training.
As for shift times, according to a job advert I saw for Leeds a few years ago, the earliest start is 04:00, latest "late" shifts finish just after midnight, and there are night shifts as well, but not many of them. As for salary its about 21-22k without overtime I think, but I think there is a low rate while on probation for 6 months. Being on probation is not fun, you don't get as much annual leave, they can get rid of you easier and obviously the salary is lower.
