It’s been a bit quiet here this past couple of days. Real life intervened.
I had yet another rejection following an interview. I made a decision to stop here.
During this past two years I have been following my sister in law’s advice. What she said, following the loss of my main contract in April 2010 was that I needed a steady job with a regular income. She had a point. My life and finances were (and still are) in ruins following that collapse. So there followed hundreds of job applications, the majority of which went unacknowledged. I’ve had a few interviews. Five with Network Rail. Indeed it took five interviews for jobs that I was eminently suited for, for them to inform me that I wasn’t eligible as they have a policy on not re-employing people who left through redundancy or compromise agreements (read; unfair dismissal).
So, despite my CV making my redundancy clear, the HR team doing the initial sift either didn’t look properly or didn’t know about the policy – equally so with the interviewing managers. A brief, heated email exchange once I discovered the existence of the policy drew nothing about why this happened. Sure, the organisation likes to talk the talk when it comes to competence management, but it is the worst kept secret on the railway that they don’t practice what they preach, so I guess it should come as no surprise to discover that despite a website encouraging erstwhile employees to apply, they didn’t bother to mention the “but not if you took redundancy” clause. And, of course, the systematic incompetence that followed, putting me though interviews for jobs I was never going to get. To say that I was annoyed would be putting it mildly to say the least.
I also had an interview with First Great Western. It seems I don’t cut the mustard for train despatch on a railway station, despite a twenty year rail career and safety critical experience and knowledge way above that required for the job. That, for me, was the final straw. I am sick to the back teeth with bloody stupid and humiliating interviews asking the same damn fool questions and giving the same tired responses, none of which means anything. I’ve been that side of the table, I know it’s all nonsense and I know that someone who performs well at interview does not necessarily make a good employee. People lie. Yes, even with competence based interviewing.
I am a trainer. It’s what I do. I’m naturally didactic. I realised this one summer Saturday in 1980 when, having recently passed my IAM motorcycle test, I volunteered to instruct at the local RAC/ACU training centre. I enjoyed it and got on well. A few years later, I took and passed, my ADI exams and ran my own driving school until the economic downturn of 1990, which pretty much killed the business stone cold dead.
Although I thought I’d put it behind me when I joined BR as a signaller, a few years later, I was managing the training for the Great Western Zone of Railtrack.
From there, I went to HQ and was actively involved in the training and assessment of signallers, operations managers and Rail Incident Officers as well as being peripherally involved in the development of the track safety training materials and signal sighting training.
Then came redundancy. I joined a small independent training provider delivering NVQ learning and development training. Frankly, there just wasn’t enough work, which was why I drifted through a number of temporary jobs until I landed the contract auditing the track safety training. The downside to this was that conflict of interest meant that I couldn’t register to deliver training or assessment, so had no real back up plan should it all go wrong. Which it did. Hence the current situation.
Just before Christmas I managed to find a sponsor who would register me as a trainer and assessor. Fortunately, this one is keeping his word, unlike some. As an aside, I never really did understand what was going on there. The client wanted some verification work and offered full time employment. When I asked for a contract of employment, it all got very vague and no one would respond to phone calls or emails. Very odd.
Still, later this week, I’ll be co-running a track safety course. They make no promises about how much work they have, so are being honest. I can live with that. Once I’m on the register of track safety trainers and assessors, I can sell my services to other clients, so won’t be relying on the one.
Given this, and given that I’ve simply had enough of trying to get a proper job, I was musing idly and wondered what the situation was like these days with motorcycle training. I emailed a local training school and asked the question. All I asked for was what the process was. I was also interested in how much it was likely to cost. They asked me to come in so that they could discuss it properly. After a forty-five minute chat, I was lined up to observe a CBT course on Saturday. As it turned out, once the trainer realised my background, she had me helping to run the course, giving instruction and feedback to the learners.
It all came flooding back. The patter, the tricks and tips. Three decades sloughed off my shoulders like melting snow off a roof. For a few brief hours I felt something that had long gone. I forgot, temporarily the sheer bloody misery of the past couple of years and got on with what I do best – training people. And I was doing it with my first love; motorcycles. Pigs in shit had nothing on me.
I’ve been offered free training to get my training licence. As the licensing regime is changing next January for learner riders, they anticipate a rush this summer as people try to get their qualifications in this year, so fast tracking me as an instructor will help them cope. If I want to progress, I can go to Cardington for the DSA assessment.
Having come home and then gone to work last night at Sainsburys, I’m pretty tired, but it’s not the exhaustion of the past year or so. This is the kind of mental exhaustion that comes from imparting knowledge and skills. It’s altogether different.
So, after countless applications, wasted time and false promises, all it took was a speculative email to a complete stranger. With the motorcycle training as well as the track safety stuff, hopefully, a lull in one can be cushioned with the other.
On the downside, Mrs L now has to find new work – she’s been trying anyway, as I have been. Her employer is about to go tits up. So, mixed news, really…
Tell me about it.
In 1994 I completed an M.Sc in Rngineering, at age 48.
How many days work have I had, since then, using that qualification?
Yeah, you guessed it – NONE
And “we can’t gey the trained staff”
My sister left work in the early nineties to take a degree in town planning. Every interview she has had since then has been accompanied by the excuse that she lacks experience. Like you, she has never used the qualification.
“And, of course, the systematic incompetence that followed, putting me though interviews for jobs I was never going to get. “
A salutary reminder that it’s not just the public sector that cocks things up so badly….
I hope it works out and as you know what I think of Network Rail’s approach to recruitment and promotion I think you’re well out of it. Best wishes.
@JuliaM. You’re right of course that incompetence is found everywhere but I think part of the reason that NR is so bad is that it’s only playing at being in the private sector, it makes all the right noises but in reality it’s as much public sector as British Rail was. It has all the worst traits of both sectors and frankly it’s a wonder it gets anything done at all.
This pretty much sums them up. It was apparent in the early Railtrack days and isn’t any better now. The rest of the industry tends to hold Network Rail in contempt because it is a corporate bully that tells others what to do and openly does something different itself. For example, the TOCs took Cullen’s recommendations regarding live environment training for drivers seriously. Network Rail’s response to the same for signallers? They set me on a six month wild goose chase setting out a suitable training package, the end of which resulted in a refusal to spend the money. Six months of my time completely wasted.
Recruitment and selection is systemically incompetent as is their approach to competence management – jut don’t talk to track workers about NR COSSs or signallers about their ongoing assessment regime. As I said, I’ve seen it from both sides. I did, at least, try to make good appointments and for the most part, succeeded.
The bike training sounds like it’s your thing, LR. Hope it works out for you.
Thanks. I do hope so. it’s about time something went our way.
Some recruitment procedures are amoral and beyond ethics. The global crisis has brought out the best and worst of all of us.
Best wishes with that LR
HR generally haven’t a clue, and regularly bin applications from people who are an excellent fit for their organisation because whoever writes their hiring policies doesn’t have a clue, either.
Good to hear the Sainsbury’s thing may be a bad and fast fading memory in the short to mid term, and all the best for Mrs L. A certain amount of reinvention (as always) may be necessary, but adapting to change is a skill in itself, and Longrider, you have that in spades. Good luck.
Have you considered the possibility of submitting a Petty Cash Voucher to Network Rail for the costs of attending those five wasted interviews? They were negligent in not advising you of their policy so why should they not pay? A trip to the small claims court would provide a little exercise for the grey matter as well.
Some battles just aren’t worth the effort, frankly.
How ghastly re Railtrack!
And is it actually legal for them to discriminate in that way re staff they have previously made redundant or reached compromise agreement with, particularly those whom they presumably only made redundant on grounds of cost-saving.
Then again, not all battles are worth the candle, particularly if you have hit
on something you used to enjoy doing from the past which potentially has a lot of
mileage in it, ahem!
All the very best with it, and good luck to you wife in her quest too. I am also looking for a new job, so fascinating to read about the power of the speculative enquiry!
Perfectly legal.