Irish Rail Jobs Discussion

Ye Ive sent mine through now as well. I guess we will just wait and see. Hopefully its good news. Best of luck mate I hope it works out for you.

Anyone here still waiting to hear anything new after completing line manager interview and medicals last year?

Yep I'm still waiting too! Did the line manager interview back in September.

I completed these on 13th Feb and received the results only today, so that takes around 2 weeks. I received an email to say that I met the standards for this test and this stage in my application, but am not guaranteed to be invited to the next round. They give you some comparative feedback on each one of the tests and I am generally in the average bucket… so I fear I might not be invited to the next round, as only a small proportion of folks will make it through, and I suppose they are above average. What is weird is that they congratulate me on my success so far at the end of the email and that I have performed well despite being quite average. In any case, they are sending my results to IR, so now it's wait and see I suppose. Good luck to you in any case!

Thanks, that's good to know! But to be honest, the email is a bit disturbing though because on the one hand they say "we are pleased to inform you that you have met the standard for the online tests and for this current stage in your application", and on the other hand the feedback I got on the Situation/Judgment test was "Your result suggested that you found this exercise more demanding than most. Your judgements were different to what we might expect a DART Driver to make whilst he/she is working"… For me, the latter does not really mean that I am meeting the standard here. Anyways… :)

During my entire recruitment it said I was average yet results showed I found it easier than other applicants.

Has anybody heard back yet from this years campaign? I applied for the National Trains on the 9th Feb had 4 days to complete the 3 tests, scaat etc done them and still to here anything back. I know the next stage is the tests up in Inchicore. But last year when I applied you got the results within 2 weeks.

I applied for the role of locomotive driver based in Limerick. I felt the 3 OPC exams I did online went well although I have not heard anything back from them yet and it has been 3 weeks, has anyone else?

I have now received an email from Irish Rail that they will move forward with my candidacy for the next stages, despite being average, slower on SCAAT but accurate and clearly challenged on the Situational Judgements. Now, that's positive! I have read briefly about the next stages and before the structured interviews, there are more in-person tests. Would anyone who has gone through those be kind enough to give a few details so that I can prep?

Stage 1 is essentially the same as the OPC tests, only in person in Irish Rail. You have to listen to a recording of an accident and make notes, SCATT test on paper and some other exercise I can't remember. Stage 2 is on computer. Can't remember all the details but it is a train on a track and you have to spot the errors 😂, tbh it all felt pointless when I went through it all 😂

“found more demanding”?

hmm hard one to say - why would they say congratulations and they also have not said you’re out. I’d keep the faith!

I found the wording they use is extremely misleading. With this kind of phrasing, it did not feel like I met the standard… yet, I have passed and will go to the assessment centre at some point.

word on the inside is that the new CEO of Irish rail has paused all recruitment and that the current campaigns for DART and Diesel drivers only went ahead because they went public before numbers were crunched. Sorry to be the bearer of possible bad news. I hope I’m wrong. If this is true then the current campaigns will result in panels for future vacancies yet to be approved. Interviews for drivers from previous campaigns have been taking place over the last few weeks.

If they pause recruitment, how are they going to fill the roles left behind after the voluntary redundancies that are rumoured to be coming. 🤣

They are cancelling trains already, due to lack of drivers, and there are shortages in a number of depots. And how are they going to cover jobs while drivers are doing conversion courses for the new trains?