East Midlands Railway interview questions

Relatively easy online form to complete. It became clear at interview that it was a bit of a personality contest from the fact they wanted names redacting from CVs. The group interview did not give all candidates a fair chance to shine and a few arrived unaware that the job wasn't guaranteed, just that a place in the pool was. We were told to return at 2pm after lunch but nobody showed up until 2.30pm then they just told us they couldn't interview any further because so many had passed the interview. Waste of time. Although this is only reflective of the Derby branch and not EMR altogether. Received the feedback and apparently failed that bit due to talking a bit about my background in the introduction - when I said I was new to customer service but have transferable skills and looking for a challenge. In addition, internal applicants were with us which gave them an unfair advantage, they made up about 20% of the group. What was particularly noticeable was that although 6 of the 20 candidates were men, of the 5 interviewing panellists, there was no male representation on the team at all and I feel that that had already put all 6 of us at an unfair disadvantage. There needs to be representation of both genders across such large panels, even if it is only 1 person for a particular gender.

A group assessment in the morning, and then 50% of candidates can enter the next stage: individual interview. No feedback, Lack clear criteria. Against my shadowing image within an actual train operation company