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Trainee train driver interview with ScotRail
- Thread starter Driver170
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has anyone had an interview with this TOC and could possibly pass on any information regarding this please ?
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R
RailUK Forums
Hi Vernon,
Having not too long ago gone through this - all i can say is you need to relax. This is a fairly informal interview usually with 2 interviewers. The biggest thing i would say is make sure you know your stuff about Scotrail and First Group. You REALLY need to know the company and know it well!
Do your research --- there is no shortcut for this i spent many hours trawling websites for information including news sites looking for recent news items about them. I would also go to some of the main stations or at least your local station and try and talk to a driver manager or even a spare driver (Sunday's are good for this as there tends to be a spare driver on). I went to Glasgow Central and Waverley Stations to do this as well -- they will ask you what research you have done for this role and you need to have done more than the rest of the guys being interviewed!
What i did was to make a kind of promotional corporate introduction of First group and Scotrail -- ie try and make it flow rather than just fire random facts about the company.
They will ask you why you want to be a train driver and what qualities you can bring to the role - so look at your job role now and try and fit that to a train driver's role.
Hope that helps -- when is your interview?
Gary
Having not too long ago gone through this - all i can say is you need to relax. This is a fairly informal interview usually with 2 interviewers. The biggest thing i would say is make sure you know your stuff about Scotrail and First Group. You REALLY need to know the company and know it well!
Do your research --- there is no shortcut for this i spent many hours trawling websites for information including news sites looking for recent news items about them. I would also go to some of the main stations or at least your local station and try and talk to a driver manager or even a spare driver (Sunday's are good for this as there tends to be a spare driver on). I went to Glasgow Central and Waverley Stations to do this as well -- they will ask you what research you have done for this role and you need to have done more than the rest of the guys being interviewed!
What i did was to make a kind of promotional corporate introduction of First group and Scotrail -- ie try and make it flow rather than just fire random facts about the company.
They will ask you why you want to be a train driver and what qualities you can bring to the role - so look at your job role now and try and fit that to a train driver's role.
Hope that helps -- when is your interview?
Gary
Lanc688
Member
Railman....Similar situation myself in the not too distant future. Great advice and has made me think a little about my next step.
Thanks for sharing this!
Regards
Lanc
Thanks for that reply gary 
I have just been visiting edinburgh waverley where i hopefuly be based speaking to alot of drivers tonight, telling me about the station, how many platforms, the different kinds of trains they have etc.
Alot of them where ex forces, and im still serving in the MOD. I work along the medical crew on the evacuation helicopter in helmand, so im sure my experiance will be second to none just trying to absorb all the information about the company etc. And i have taken a few drivers names to mention in the interview.
I have it this comming thursday. Will i have another interview after this one gary ? and how did you find the reaction test ?
regards vernon
I have just been visiting edinburgh waverley where i hopefuly be based speaking to alot of drivers tonight, telling me about the station, how many platforms, the different kinds of trains they have etc.
Alot of them where ex forces, and im still serving in the MOD. I work along the medical crew on the evacuation helicopter in helmand, so im sure my experiance will be second to none
just trying to absorb all the information about the company etc. And i have taken a few drivers names to mention in the interview.I have it this comming thursday. Will i have another interview after this one gary ? and how did you find the reaction test ?
regards vernon
Hi Vernon - having a military background is good -- i think the fact that you are used to discipline and can follow rule and procedures makes up a bit part of the job.
Yes -- you will have another interview -- the dreaded structured interview!! This is hard going..... but as long as you keep your cool (and you certainly should be able do that!) you'll be fine. Use the forum search to get more info on this - no point of re-hashing it here. One of the question though is "describe a time when you have had to deal with an emergency" I guess you'll have had an abundance of those!
Have a back-up scenario for each of your situations for your structured interview because it seems quite often they will ask you for "..... another time when you have ........ " ie saying the example you have given is not good enough so you have to give another one. This happen to me.
The reaction test is actually not too bad. You get a couple of practices first to get you into the feel of it. It does seem rather daunting at first as there are five coloured buttons, a LOW & HIGH buttons and 2 pedals to operate. I am used to the playtstation and Wii games so i didn't find this a problem. There's quite a good App (if you have an Andriod phone) called "Tap it" -- this is a take on the game "bop it" where you have different action to perform against the clock -- i found this quite good to sharpen up my reactions. The test speeds up twice as you go, but i still didn't find this difficult, i know a made the odd mistake, but here is the most important thing you cannot get flustered after you make a mistake - take a few seconds and pick it up again - again this is a test to see whether you can work under pressure. You repeat the test at your own pace after this, but again its a balance of going fast enough to pass, but not too fast where you start making a lot of mistakes.
So good luck with your interview - post back when you have the result -- i found them quite quick getting back to you.
Gary
Yes -- you will have another interview -- the dreaded structured interview!! This is hard going..... but as long as you keep your cool (and you certainly should be able do that!) you'll be fine. Use the forum search to get more info on this - no point of re-hashing it here. One of the question though is "describe a time when you have had to deal with an emergency" I guess you'll have had an abundance of those!
Have a back-up scenario for each of your situations for your structured interview because it seems quite often they will ask you for "..... another time when you have ........ " ie saying the example you have given is not good enough so you have to give another one. This happen to me.
The reaction test is actually not too bad. You get a couple of practices first to get you into the feel of it. It does seem rather daunting at first as there are five coloured buttons, a LOW & HIGH buttons and 2 pedals to operate. I am used to the playtstation and Wii games so i didn't find this a problem. There's quite a good App (if you have an Andriod phone) called "Tap it" -- this is a take on the game "bop it" where you have different action to perform against the clock -- i found this quite good to sharpen up my reactions. The test speeds up twice as you go, but i still didn't find this difficult, i know a made the odd mistake, but here is the most important thing you cannot get flustered after you make a mistake - take a few seconds and pick it up again - again this is a test to see whether you can work under pressure. You repeat the test at your own pace after this, but again its a balance of going fast enough to pass, but not too fast where you start making a lot of mistakes.
So good luck with your interview - post back when you have the result -- i found them quite quick getting back to you.
Gary
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