Hello and welcome to the forum.
I'm probably in the same boat as yourself (although a little older!!!). I've had rejection after rejection for various TOC roles over the last seven or eight months where most of the time I've not even got through the paper sift.
Fortunately, I have got to the interview stages with two jobs for different TOCs - one was a customer service controller - the other was an office based role. Sadly, I didn't get either job. I also attended an assessment day (which included an interview) for a Train Manager role where I was one of ten candidates on the day. Again I lost out to one of the others but my opposition was very competitive and it did feel like it was luck of the draw who actually got the job.
You are very unlikely to get feedback from HR people if your application only gets as far as the paper sift. I actually created a thread recently about obtaining feedback as even if you reach the interview stage, sometimes it's like getting blood out of a stone. HR people are extremely busy and an unsuccessful candidate is sadly not at the top of their priority list. I recently had a knock back for a job with the Transport for Greater Manchester that was a customer caseworker role. I spent a a good few days preparing the application and evidencing strong examples to the competency based questions but I didn't get through the paper sift and sadly I am never likely to find out why my hard work and effort on the application wasn't good enough.
All I will say to you is research professional CV writing on the Internet or try and seek out someone with good knowledge of CVs. Also make sure your cover letter is spot on aswell.
Finally, all of the forum members on here share tales and information regularly and the railway industry is a very competitive market. Most if not all jobs are attracting a high volume of applicants and the trainee driver roles can get applications in treble figures so I am just warning you what you are up against. I personally avoid the driving roles as my eye sight is crap and I am dreadful at doing the various skill tests involved that are quite intense.
It will seem like a lottery sometimes just trying to get your foot in the door but you'll have to just keep plugging away and giving 110% to each application.
All the best anyway.
C J
