Home » Other Industries » Transport, Logistics & Supply Chain » Transport for London (TfL)

Transport for London (TfL) Interview Questions

This application and assessment process interview profile is specific to the TfL Service Delivery & Development scheme. It is however, almost certainly very similar to assessment processes for all other graduate schemes at TfL.

Assessment Process

[Edit]

The TfL graduate scheme assessment process consists of:

Online Application

[Edit]

The online application is based on the usual competencies, i.e. “Why would you be suited to a position with TfL”?

It is important to stress your interests in the City of London, your passion for transport, and enthusiasm for making TfL a world-class transport system. Remember that the majority of graduate schemes offered by TfL are office-based, so you don’t need to mention exact train specifications or technical details.

Situational Judgement Questionnaire

[Edit]

The situational judgement questionnaire is a straight-forward multiple choice test. It requires you to specify your response to a series of specific situations. It is not timed as such, but you are given a maximum amount of time to complete it in.

There is nothing you can do to prepare for this test. Candidates must use their common sense, more than anything else.

Telephone Interview

[Edit]

This is a standard telephone interview. It may be conducted by a third party organisation such as Reed, or in-house, by members of the graduate recruitment team at TfL.

No particular preparation is required for this interview, but candidates should read and research the TfL graduate website about some of the current projects they are involved in, such as: low emission zones, the interchange, DLR upgrades, etc.

Show some initiative and think about how you would like to work on these projects, and then discuss this in your interview. If you can, outline some high level methods to improve these projects too. For example, consider the TfL Tube-Cooling project, and how regenerative braking causes long term problems.

The interview lasts 10-15 minutes and is essentially just a chance for the TfL graduate recruitment team to talk to graduate applicants, and make sure that they are enthusiastic about TfL, confident on the telephone and able to answer different types of question.

First Assessment Centre

[Edit]

If you are successful at the Telephone Interview stage, you’ll be invited to the first assessment centre. These are held in rented office space in London, typically on and near the Circle Line.

Make sure you eat before the assessment centre as only tea and biscuits are offered, and the day can get very intensive. For most schemes, this is only the first of two assessment centres. However, for smaller schemes (i.e. electronic engineering), there may be just one, longer assessment centre.

During this assessment centre, the main tasks are:

Competency Based Interview

Fast Track Test

This is an SHL verbal and numerical reasoning test. You will be given a series of cards (roughly 20 per question). The cards each contain certain details and you have to ascertain the connection between the cards.

A crude example of what you are expected to do would be of a deck of cards, with the Ace of spades taken out and replaced with a blank card. By looking at the rest of the deck, you would ascertain that each suite has a certain number of cards, with there being 4 suites. From here, you could ascertain that since the heart, diamond and club suites all have an ace card; the spade suite is missing this card. Hence, you could assume that the missing card is an ace of spades. The test is similar to this, but more complex – i.e. using driver profiles in a taxi firm (each card has a name, position of driver, experience, car, engine size, etc.)

Group exercise

Your group exercise will consist of six members. This will be a role-play of a board meeting for the re-development of a certain area of London. Each member of the group represents a member of TfL, with their own vested interests (i.e. representing the cycling association, local residents, and local businesses). The task is to put across your argument in a coherent, professional manner, while being receptive to the other group members.

It is a good idea to take initial leadership by offering to introduce yourself. While you are not allowed to appoint a group chairman, you can position yourself as an authority figure from the start. Make sure you write everything down, as you have to write a formal report in the last 20 minutes of the task, outlining the decisions that were made, and what everyone’s proposals were.

As mentioned before, try and be assertive throughout the exercise, while being understanding of the other members. Although putting across your opinions and the opinions of the people you represent is important, you have to consider the overall success of the project in order to do well. So even if you put across an excellent argument for the cyclists association, if their interests conflict with the success of the project, it is probably a good idea to tell the group that you recognise the cyclists requests are in-feasible, and that success of the project is the key aim.

The assessment centre should be a fun and productive day, enjoy it and do your best. You are not competing with anyone, but make sure you stand out. Give a firm handshake, speak with confidence. Show passion for the role.

Second Assessment Centre

[Edit]

This second assessment centre is slower paced than the first, and you will get a chance to meet some current graduates. There will be far less less candidates on this assessment centre too. Take the chance to get to know your piers. If you all get hired, you may all be working together. Furthermore, your assessors will be watching how well you communicate and get on with, other people.

This assessment centre consists of:

Memory Test

Candidates cannot really prepared for this test; you have 10 minutes to read a brief manual, followed by multiple choice tests where you have to recall the procedures in the manual.

Competency Based Interview

There is a competency based interview with a panel during the day, which is almost identical in format to the first stage interview (although the questions are different). Be confident, and really try to sell yourself.

Presentation

One of the key tasks on this assessment centre is the 10-minute presentation that you are asked to prepare for, before the day of assessment itself. This presentation will be assessed by a member of the HR team, and a senior line manager.

TfL will send you details of your presentation seven days in advance, so there is plenty of time to prepare.

This is followed by a brief technical Q&A session about your ideas from the presentation, and some general questions (mostly from the line manager). Some key points:

  • Ten minutes goes very quickly when giving a presentation - five to ten slides is enough.
  • Include all of your key information on the slides you use. This will work in your favour because When your interviewers ask questions, they review/use your slides. If you include word for word sections of your script on the slides, it is more likely yoru interviewers will ask a question regarding something you have already said (and researched), as opposed to a random technical question.
  • Make sure you finish your presentation within the time allowed.
  • Your delivery of the presentation is important, probably more so than the content itself. Speak at a moderate pace, in clear English and try to be confident.
  • Questions are reserved for the end of your presentation - do not invite your interviewers to ask questions before this.

Technical Q&A Session

The technical Q&A is said to be the hardest part of the assessment day. However, if you have researched your area and the material you are sent thoroughly, this should be easily managable and a chance to put across your opinions and ideas.

Offer

[Edit]

After your final assessment centre, TfL should contact you within 48 hours with a response.

Bookmark/Search this post with:
‹ Transport for London (TfL)up
>