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Virgin Trains 'Selection Event'.

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the sniper

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Hi chaps, I've been invited to attend an assessment day with Virgin Train on Tuesday, it's for a platform assistant/dispatcher job at Birmingham International. During the day there will be a "group exercise", does anybody know what this will entail? Also, has anybody here experienced a Virgin Trains 'Selection Event' and would care to share their experience?

Thanks in advance, any help would be much appreciated. :)
 
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Skie

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Not been to a virgin one, but had one years ago for a retail job. The group stuff is usually prety comical stuff, building things and working together. Can be quite embarrasing if your shy, especially if they ask you to make animal noises in front of a room of 20 strangers!
 

Darandio

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How about a Crosscountry selection event, a wooden beam placed over two chairs and being blindfolded, then to crawl across guided by your fellow job hunters! Apparently it promotes trust between workmates and is good for team building.
 

dogman

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The wife attended one a few years ago, at International funnily enough. Her group exercise, involved designing a newspaper advert for the company. Each person had an input into the finished article.

There was a maths test as well, she informs me. A forgotten art, reckoning up in your head.

Good luck.
 

Ferret

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Ah, the dreaded group exercise. When I did mine (about 5 years ago!), it was everyone picking a random card with a subject on it. You then had 5 mins to discuss said subject. Everyone took a turn to launch the discussion, and to pass, you had to be able to give an opinion, and also be able to stand by it if somebody took issue with what you'd said. You also had to demonstrate you could listen to others!

Best of luck...:)
 

HSTfan!!!

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I had to do group work with crosscountry, I'd assume virgin might have a similiar system because XC's is totally different to ATW's and FGW's for that matter.
All I will say is don't be shy, get your voice heard - they will be looking for a bit of confidence from you to speak openly amongst the group and for teamwork. They will also take into account if you try to involve someone who maybe isn't speaking up as much.
 

the sniper

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Thanks for the replies guys, the selection event was last week, unfortunately I screwed up on one of the tests so didn't get through to group exercise! How, embarrassing... :-x

I messed up on the verbal test, the one where you have to read a piece of text and pick out the facts. The week before I had done a similar test with the BTP, in that you had 25 minutes to do 31 question and you had to get a high percentage of questions correct. In the Virgin assessment you are given 35 questions to do in 10 minutes. Because I had practised expecting a similar time limit to the BTP assessment (the invitation email from Virgin didn't reveal the length of the test, but the example they gave suggested it'd be similar), I had got used to doing them in a rather slow and careful way. When it came to doing it in 10 minutes I wasn't prepared, the time flashed and I stupidly stuck to my slowly, slowly catchy monkey way, I only got just under halfway through and thus failed.

I was especially annoyed as I think I did really well in the other test where you have to listen to a tape of noises, questions and commands, a test which I originally though would be the hardest...

Oh well, you live and learn. I seriously doubt I'd have got the job anyway, I have no previous employment history, yet the other 8 people who were there (2 of which went out at the same stage as me) all seemed to have past railway experience, the majority had already worked for Virgin Trains!
 

The 158 Man

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Bad luck matey. At least you know what you're up against now though. Selection Events aren't the nicest things in the world. :(

On the other hand, you'll be much more prepared if such an event ever comes 'round again. ;)
 
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