TFL Finance

Tel interview is quite easy if you know some competency examples. go to the tfl graduate website and open the page that says: what we look for, during the interview (if you can think fast) apply some of the competencies sought here to your examples! thanks

I HAVE TEL INTERVIEW TOMMOROWWWW, HAVE U DONE YOUR ONE YET? HELPPPPPP lol please

You'll be tested on these 3 competencies:

Customer Focus Communication Scheduling & Motivation

Make sure you have examples for those, because I can guarantee 99% chance you'll have them for the Finance scheme. In addition you'll have the following technical question:

"TfL has decided to extend Underground operating time by 1 hour on Saturday and Sundays, i.e from 10AM close to 11AM. What costs are associated with this?"

Include stuff like lighting costs, staff and security costs, the extra energy required to run the trains, etc etc.

thank you sooooooooooooo much, your a lifeeeeeeee saver mate, ill let u know how it went? i assume u did well? i hope you did

i had a tel interview 2 weeks ago, received an email confirming i was successful, a week later i received another call and they scheduled another tel interview to ask 1 more competency question and then the question above by reg. they want you to think outside the box, i wasnt lucky enough to read the question before hand but it helps to plan ahead!!! waiting for another email to confirm whether ive made it or not, AGAIN!!

Have they got back to you yet?

Reg thank you so much, i don't know if i had done well on the telephone interview but your information was very useful, i had my test on Friday and it been almost a week and they haven't replied

have u done the telephone interview and if yes, have they replied back to you?

I'm wondering the same thing - I had my interview about a week and half ago but haven't heard anything either way :/

GUESS WAT PEEOPLEEE I HAVE PASSSED THE TELEPHONE INTERVIEWWWW

thank you everyone

How long did it take you to hear back from them?

has deadline for finance passed? i cannot find it on application form?

Dont think so, if you can apply then it hasnt passed! got an assessment centre coming up! read some very interesting advice from a forum! this is basically what the guy said:

I had one less than a year ago for finance position. I was also supposed to have one in 2 weeks but i already found better work.

Anyhow....they brought in this psychologist [i kid you not] who gave us the HARDEST mathematics test i have EVER had...in fact i am convinced to not a single attendee passed the test..i will only reveal as much as this. it involved rate cards and a lot of puzzles. We then had a one to one presentation, about 5 minutes then a group discussion exercise where we pretended to be openin a new station in central london for the olympics...we had to discuss the possible complaints from locals yet consider the polution levels etc and the budget..

Take my advice....you should be SELFISH...i and another person fell VICTIMS of the BIG-GOBS! they dominated the discussion or should i say their LECTURE, and always "complimented then suggested" something after anyone said anything "thats a great idea mr X, however wouldnt it be better if...." and thats how they got to alienate the rest of us and get the job...there were also about 6 assessors and they sat in dfifferent areas of the room around us, each assessor had to concentrate on one candidate [i SWEAR this is TRUE] and that only added to the pressure, do you want advice?

1. Forge an alliance with a BIG-GOB as soon as you get there, that way if you end up in the same group, the two of you or your little crew can compliment each other and cut the rest of [not fair, but thats life]

2. Leave your sence of shame at home for the day, its about who can talk the most, crack the most jokes and shamlessly lick as many boots as possible, dont matter what you say, just as long as you KEEP SAYING IT.

3. Dont worry about being honest and fair, beleive me, the same people who are friendly to you at the start will turn against you if they see that your their ticket into the job..they see a shy person, it makes them look better if the two of them happen to be in the same group.

Finally, for about 5 hours of performance you can either end up with a grad job or unemployed, its your choice, but remember "ME,MYSELF and I"...

I didnt get the job because i didnt want to be FAKE or UNFAIR to the others, but when i came out of there, my whole game play changed...bigger fish will carry on feeding on the sardines, thats just the way it is...so on my next assessment day i implemented my plan and got the job 2 weeks later, better job, bigger pay and told TFL where to stick it [yes, i did apply again, got to the final stage again and told them i wasnt interested.."satisfaction guaranteed"]

Good luck!

.......................................................................................

Your perfectly right, you know this interviews meant to show the interviews your kindness, your thoughts and confidence but BULLLSHIT you meant to show ignorance, selfishness, and dominate...where is the TEAM WORK.. up their ...... lol or what about where is respecting opinions and taking it under consideration lol... so who did you get the job with now.. by the way thanx for the advise,immensely appreciated.

sorry the above post was by someone else who went for the same scheme. im going to an assessment centre in a week or so! ill let you know how it all went! ill probably record the whole thing! should be interesting.

Guys, i need your help one more time! im due to go to a gruesome assessment centre with TFL next week and im 1 step away! i have to give a presentation on the following topic:

• The development of a budget for the utilisation of a £500 million increase in Transport for London’s government grant*

I am confident in delivering the presentation and i have heard they dont put too much emphasis on the content but delivery but i want quality content!

My question is, when developing a budget, what priority tasks or key risks does the finance department face when faced with such a task?

Thanks

tfl assessment centre is exactly as described in the wiki. depending on the scheme, there might be a numerical test.otherwise, prepare some good answers and you should be fine! the only research you have to do is on the presentation case study you do!

fcuk19 may i ask your name, and dont take this wrongly are you white or black or asian ? we might have met?

Yea name is Leonard, i was the only black guy at the assessment centre!

Big dilemma now! went for tfl assessment on wednesday, im sure i did well in all exercises but the finance test, problem is im not from an accounting background, im sure i passed all fast track questions, maybe got 2 wrong.

do i still stand a chance? 4 tests passed, 1 not so good????

anyone.....

Yeah you still stand a chance. You aren't competing against anyone, but against TfLs requirements. Nobody does well on all the exercises. Just send a "thank you" e-mail to your assesor, or to the HR team, and ask them to forward it to the relevant person. Then, wait for the response!

Damn, should i be disappointed or what! TFL havent responded in 3 weeks since i applied to them! initial response was 48 hours but everyone who went to the assessment centre has not received a response! ill update as soon as i get something, good or bad!!!

^ I had to wait over a month, and they offered me the job. So don't sweat it.

K just got a reply after 4 weeks but didnt make it, mainly due to the performance on the finance test but the fast track was excellent and scored well in other areas! not disappointed considering i know my weakness now!

just came across this website, what a gem! I got a job offer with tfl, so am chuffed to bits with it :) Question: people who already got the job offer and contract, don't you think it's strange that we are not yet asked about which professional qualification we'll be studying for? Would you go for CIMA or ACCA? My general impression following the assessment centre is that Tfl supports CIMA more. Did anyone else get the same impression?

Do TfL let you choose between CIMA and ACCA? That's pretty good. If you want to stay in industry, take CIMA. If you plan on working for an professional services firm at some point in your career, ACCA is probably a slightly better bet.

Reg, hmm, that's a tough choice though. The syllabus of both qualifications is actually quite similar, although i guess in the rivalry of the different professional bodies every difference is a HUGE one :) I'm inclined to study for ACCA, but if everyone else will be studying CIMA, I worry I will get isolated. No study group, etc. Suprised you didn't realise Tfl offered a choice, from the thread it appears you know a lot about their recruitement process?

Yeah I went through the recrutiment process earlier this year (2007/2008 cycle), but decided to study an M.Sc. instead. I reapplied for finance (2008/2009 cycle), but the interview date conflicted with another interview I had, which was more in line with my career aspirations.

Congratulations anyway, they are a great organisation to work for. Will you be based at St. James Park?

Ok, that explains it. Congratulations to you too! Yes, I will be based at the St. James Park office, but am presuming that if a placement takes place in another part of London I will be moved accodingly. Will see...

Hi, i have a telephone interview for TFL next week...its my first and my very nervous. Please could anyone help? They mentioned that i would get a technical question, does anyone know what this will be? and what other kinds of questions did they ask you?

Hi Stacey,

 I have a phone interview coming up next week too. What date is yours? mine is on tuesday. 

I tried asking the HR personal that called me today about which competentcies will be covered but he said he was not allowed to say. Which scheme are you applying for anyway? im trying for finance.

Hi rpatel789,

thanks for your reply, mine is on Wednesday. I'm applying for the finance scheme too =) The comments above are quite useful, but i wanted to get more recent comments so that i have a better idea of what might come up. Have you had a telephone interview before?

It's pretty much the same as listed above. The dude asked me to give real-life examples displaying your skills with reference to specific competencies. I had:

Embracing Change Communication Collaborative Skills

i just prepared a lil sheet with examples of all the competencies and literally read it out when he asked for examples.

And the kicker at the end...

"TfL has decided to extend Underground operating time by 1 hour on Saturday and Sundays, i.e from 10AM close to 11AM. What costs are associated with this?"

lighting, staff, advertising, keeping other transport links open etc...

I just had my interview last week. should hopefully hear from them soon.

anyone been invited to assessment centre yet?