Signaller Selection Day

[XingClaggers]

God knows how, but i have been invited to a selection day for a grade 7 signaller at Ely.

I have read through the signaller thread, but could do with some help with what to expect on the day?

The job page says that info about signallers is available here https://www.networkrail.co.uk/?id=30064777845 but the info is more than lacking.

If anyone has any info it would be much appreciated.

 

[Tom Quinne]

Signaller selection day ? Never heard of it, there used to be a series of paper based assessments you had to attend before the completely messes up the system.

 

[Static65]

Ely LOM held an informal assessment centre around 6 months ago to fill several vacancies. I imagine this may be similar. If so the format was as follows:

A group discussion about which items to use in a fictional emergency to test communication.

A 5 minute concentration test a little like a home made group bourdon test using numbers not dots. Tip: Follow the instructions at the top of EVERY sheet. Half of the people on my day were sent home from this test, not for being too slow, but simply by scoring 0 due to not reading the instructions at the top of each sheet. Not every sheet asks for the same pattern, some want you to find just even or just odd numbers. This test is really easy if you read it first.

A written test where you are given 2 pages from a signalling rule book to read, along with a fictional emergency situation and you are asked to write down what you would do, who you would communicate with and reasons why, based on the rules you have read. The LOM said this was done as they had a few people fail signalling school recently and this was to test your ability to learn and communicate the rules.

They then marked the answers and interviewed in the afternoon with a standard compaticy based interview but in short form. I think I was only asked to give 3 example based answers.

I have no knowledge if this will be the format again, but it sounds like they will be doing something similar.

 

[Highlandspring]

Very interesting. Was this instead of or in addition to the online tests?

 

[Static65]

In addition to the online tests. The material for the assessment day was devised and written by the Ely LOM.

 

[XingClaggers]

Ely LOM held an informal assessment centre around 6 months ago to fill several vacancies. I imagine this may be similar. If so the format was as follows:

A group discussion about which items to use in a fictional emergency to test communication.

A 5 minute concentration test a little like a home made group bourdon test using numbers not dots. Tip: Follow the instructions at the top of EVERY sheet. Half of the people on my day were sent home from this test, not for being too slow, but simply by scoring 0 due to not reading the instructions at the top of each sheet. Not every sheet asks for the same pattern, some want you to find just even or just odd numbers. This test is really easy if you read it first.

A written test where you are given 2 pages from a signalling rule book to read, along with a fictional emergency situation and you are asked to write down what you would do, who you would communicate with and reasons why, based on the rules you have read. The LOM said this was done as they had a few people fail signalling school recently and this was to test your ability to learn and communicate the rules.

They then marked the answers and interviewed in the afternoon with a standard compaticy based interview but in short form. I think I was only asked to give 3 example based answers.

I have no knowledge if this will be the format again, but it sounds like they will be doing something similar.

Thanks.

I didn't some online tests just after the application, are these the only ones or would there be more?

How many people were there with you?

 

[Static65]

No additional online tests. Just the network rail standard ones that you do at home when you first apply.

There were 12 people there on my day, and there were 3 days of assessments in total, however this was for lots of vacancies across multiple grades and there were a few LOMs there from across the region.

Of the 12, I think 7 made it to interviews. The 5 that didn't were all sent home for not following the instructions on the number pattern test.

They were going to call us all back on another day for interviews, but a few had travelled a really long way, so agreed on the day to do mini interviews instead. The original plan was for a full interview the following week.

 

[XingClaggers]

Hopefully I will get lucky and the interviews will all happen on the same day.

Did you get offered a job?

 

[Static65]

Yes I was offered a post, but then also received an offer at a higher grade closer to home so turned the Ely offer down in the end.

 

[XingClaggers]

Ely is only 30 minutes from me, so would be great. I also have an application in for a grade 2 so this would be the better option.

If I'm honest though I haven't been able to find out how the grades work.

 

[MidlandsChap]

Yes I was offered a post, but then also received an offer at a higher grade closer to home so turned the Ely offer down in the end.

Can I much how much you wrote in your answers to the 70 online questions?
I am an external so cannot answer all of them, but just wondering if they are looking for a couple of lines summary or a few paragraphs taking an example into detail.

 

[Static65]

I wrote a short paragraph, between 3 and 8 lines for each question.

However, I have also applied for a post whilst away from home and just wrote available on request into every box and still got through, so i'm not sure how much they matter for sifting. It has been said on the career as a signaller thread that they just count the number of yes' and only look in detail if they still then need something further to separate candidates. My experence suggests this is probably close to the truth, but I am no expert and could't say for sure.

 

[MidlandsChap]

Thanks Stanic, I suppose its logical that it might be a case of letting the software behind the questions count the yes answers, and base pass or fail on that. I will still write a few lines, but perhaps not spend hours on it.

 

[Highlandspring]

No additional online tests. Just the network rail standard ones that you do at home when you first apply.

There were 12 people there on my day, and there were 3 days of assessments in total, however this was for lots of vacancies across multiple grades and there were a few LOMs there from across the region.

Of the 12, I think 7 made it to interviews. The 5 that didn't were all sent home for not following the instructions on the number pattern test.

I must say I’m surprised HR went along with this; they must have at least have had some knowledge of it. I believe the option to run the previously used psychometric assessments, i.e. the TEA-Occ, the TRP and the maths assessment, administered by HR is still available if the LOM wants to use them so it seems a bit odd to resort to Heath Robinson unofficial home made efforts. It also appears to be a tacit acknowledgement by HR that the current online assessments do not necessarily produce candidates who can actually learn anything and pass the school...

 

[MidlandsChap]

I must say I’m surprised HR went along with this; they must have at least have had some knowledge of it. I believe the option to run the previously used psychometric assessments, i.e. the TEA-Occ, the TRP and the maths assessment, administered by HR is still available if the LOM wants to use them so it seems a bit odd to resort to Heath Robinson unofficial home made efforts. It also appears to be a tacit acknowledgement by HR that the current online assessments do not necessarily produce candidates who can actually learn anything and pass the school...

It would be simple to add in some trainability tests online but I would expect the wider problem is how open to abuse this method is.
One alternative option would be assessments done on the same day as interviews, all held locally. Its logistically fairly simple in that the first candidate turns up does tests for about an hour and then goes into their interview, whilst being interviewed the next canidate for interview is doing their test and so on.

 

[Static65]

I was a little surprised too, mostly as I had spent much of my prep time reading up on the business, values, routes, future plans etc and non of these came up. I wasn't even asked about the safety vision or lifesaving rules which I though was mandatory so they must have been using their own scoring matrix and not one from HR.

It was reasonably professional, but was shown up in a few areas, such a when someone disclosed a disability and asked for extra time and they didn't know how much to give as it was only written the week before, so they asked the candidate how much they would like and just said yes.

To be fair though, as homemade efforts go I think it served it's purpose. The LOM got to spend an entire day interacting with the candidates instead of just listening to 45 minutes of pre prepared answers, and it was clear to me and probably everyone else in the room by the end of the day who may be suitable for the role and who clearly wouldn't be, and they were clearly scoring each excersize to provide quantitative evidence if that's what HR require.

It definitely came across as though the choice to add in the extra assessments was to try and reduce the signalling school failure rate, and I would expect it to be a full interview in future as was originally planned for me. I think it was only as some of the room had travelled the length of the country to be there that they cut the interview section short to stop them having to re-attend.

 

[XingClaggers]

Does anyone know where the NR place is in Ely? Is it actually at the station?

The address given is "Ely Network Operations Depot, Station Road, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4BS" but i cant find the actual building on google earth.

 

[Static65]

The entrance through the train station car park, bottom right corner.

 

[XingClaggers]

thanks, i like to know where im going

 

[Static65]

I parked at the station, but some at my assessment day just pressed the buzzer and we allowed to park inside the compound if you are driving.

 

[XingClaggers]

So i just received a rejection email for this position, but it just said "No match technically".

Anyone know what this means?

 

[Highlandspring]

Sorry to hear that. That implies you failed the assessment - did you have an interview?

 

[XingClaggers]

Yeah, passed assessments on day and had an interview

 

[SJCembre]

God knows how, but i have been invited to a selection day for a grade 7 signaller at Ely.

I have read through the signaller thread, but could do with some help with what to expect on the day?

The job page says that info about signallers is available here https://www.networkrail.co.uk/?id=30064777845 but the info is more than lacking.

If anyone has any info it would be much appreciated.

Have you got any more info on how the assessment day was run at Ely?

What did the assessments consist of?

 

[XingClaggers]

Have you got any more info on how the assessment day was run at Ely?

What did the assessments consist of?

There was a group test where we were given a scenario of surviving a plane crash and were given a list of item we had. We were told we could only take a limited number of them, and as a group which had to decide which we would take. This was while being monitored. I suspect there is no correct answers but more of how you act in a group.

We were given a grid of numbers from 0-99 in a random order and had to circle the numbers in a specific sequence i.e lowest to highest, highest to lowest, lowest to highest even number only etc. After this, 4 people were given the boot.

A written test of being given a page from the signalling manual about water on tracks and then given a situation and asked what we would do.

Finally an interview which is where i think i screwed up

 

[SJCembre]

There was a group test where we were given a scenario of surviving a plane crash and were given a list of item we had. We were told we could only take a limited number of them, and as a group which had to decide which we would take. This was while being monitored. I suspect there is no correct answers but more of how you act in a group.

We were given a grid of numbers from 0-99 in a random order and had to circle the numbers in a specific sequence i.e lowest to highest, highest to lowest, lowest to highest even number only etc. After this, 4 people were given the boot.

A written test of being given a page from the signalling manual about water on tracks and then given a situation and asked what we would do.

Finally an interview which is where i think i screwed up

Thank you for sharing your experience! Has given me an insight into what could be going down on the day!


Was there any particular questions from the interview that you remember or that stumped you?

 

[XingClaggers]

Thank you for sharing your experience! Has given me an insight into what could be going down on the day!


Was there any particular questions from the interview that you remember or that stumped you?

I think there was a question about network rails safety vision or something alone those lines,