Hi Emilali,
I also had an assessment with Northern Rail last week (10th August). Firstly, I would wholly recommend visiting the station before your assessment to introduce yourself. I called in and met the station manager, she invited me into the office and the conductor manager made me a cuppa. Believe me, it means a lot that you've made the effort, HR mentioned it when I was called with the job offer so it must have been relayed to them by the station manager.
The assessment day itself consisted of an interview with 2 managers which lasted roughly 1 hour, the usual 'what do you know about the company', 'why do you want to work here' but they also ask for example of situations that you may have been in e.g. tough decision making, difficult situations etc, and the outcomes. Also, please make sure that you do your research on the company (how many stations they manage/service, the name of the MD, how many trains they run etc) you can get a lot of info from the Northern website or even Wikipedia.
The second part was very interesting but fun also.. They gave a group of us (5 candidates) a task to come up with an idea that would improve the service that Northern provide and how we would do it, we were given 5 minutes to think of an idea, 20 plus minutes to discuss and write the ideas on a white board, then they ask for 1 volunteer to give a presentation with around 10 managers in the room writing notes at all times. If you really want the job you must stand out more than the other candidates, give as many ideas as possible, be confident, speak up and raise your hand when they ask for a volunteer, it will definitely go in your favour. I had my medical today and start training in Manchester on 19th September.
Hope this helps
Ian
