Heya Andy,
Sadly, the answers to some of your questions is a rhetorical: How Long is a Piece of String. My advise and information comes from two rounds of recruitment, initially in 2007/8 geting my first position in the industry in an analytical or operations support role, and my latest round of recruitment moving into Ops/Customer service management. (I was successfull in both I might add, and will soon be starting a new job as a station manager)
Anyone got any info on their recruitment process such as how many stages there are at the assessment centre?
This WILL vary between TOC to TOC and from role to role. For the job I was successfull in, I had to undergo a Managerial Numerical and Verbal reasoning Test and a Group Excercise with other canditates to plan and market an event (very Apprentice-esque if you know what I mean) and then the selection interview, Southeastern had the most thorough series of assessments though, for a Train Service Manager role in their Ops team they did all of the above, plus a Planning Exorcise in which you had to plan a work rosta, and a series of what they call Business Intelligence Problems, where you had some information and you had to come up a solution to a problem based on limited evidence. For the same role with another TOC, there was NO assessments carried out at all.
For a ticket office/front line customer service role, you will probably be expected to sit one of the papers in both Numeracy and Verbal reasoning from SHL.
http://www.shldirect.com/practice_tests.html
The OPC do assessments that are tailored to the railway though, and they are things like Ticket Office Cashing Up, Ticket Checking, Train Dispatch etc. But be very carefull with these tests. They are NOT testing your knowledge of REAL train dispatch procedures, or of real tickets, they are completely fictious rules and tickets, so you might have a passage explaining "WHEN THE SIGNAL IS RED THE TRAIN CAN GO, WHEN IT IS GREEN IT MUST STOP" dont get caught up by it.
http://www.theopc.co.uk/tests/transport/
Are the assessments always held at Crewe?
For Virgin I believe they normally are where it is practicable to send canditates there, I think if you were applying for a job in Glasgow they might hold something locally, but they have spent a lot of money on their Talent Academy, and they will want to get the most use out of it. For the other TOCs it all depends, some hold them locally where the job is situated, some hold them at HQ. Most issue you with Authority to travel on their services to and from interviews and assessments. Arriva Trains Wales will reimburse all expenses in attending, certainly did for a friend of mine going from Hull to Cardiff for an interview however, Network Raill do neither.
How soon do you hear from them once the closing date has passed?
This is a piece of string answer sadly. It depends on the workload of the recruitment team, the ammount of vacanccies, and to be honest, how important your vacancy is to the business. If they are constantly breaching Schedule 17 by virtue of the fact that they dont have enough Ticket Office staff, then you will hear pretty damned quick. Basically, once the application has closed, HR will create a list of applicants, and exclude any automatic rejections, such as if you didnt have residency in the UK, or you ticked "No" to working shifts and weekends etc. The list will go to the recruiting manager to shortlist their choices for interview based on your application/CV etc. Then usually back to HR, who will issue letters inviting you for invites. My first job in the industry closed on the Friday, HR took the paperwork to the recruiting manager Monday morning, they then rang me to confirm I had an interview on the Monday afternoon, had the interview on the Thursday and was rang back to be told I was successfull on the Friday! All less than a week, but that is exceptionally quick. My new job, took about 3 weeks from closing to being told I had it, but again, even that is quick.
Is there a role play or group exercise or both?
See above.
If you want any more specifics, or I can be of any help feel free to PM me.
91101
