The Student Room Group

Becoming a train driver after university?

Has anyone one here completed a university degree then decided afterwards to become a train driver instead of pursuing a career related to their degree? I am 21 and in my second year of uni, I'm definitely going to finish my degree first but I'm considering applying for a trainee train driver position after I graduate. I like the sound of the potential salary along with the job description since I prefer working in solitude most of the time, I can maintain focus for long periods of time, I don't drink alcohol at all or use illegal drugs, I can handle shift work, I have decent customer service skills from jobs I have worked in the past, I have a lot of patience and can remain calm in stressful situations, my reactions are pretty quick and I have good hand eye co-ordination from years of doing martial arts. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Original post by Titan529
Has anyone one here completed a university degree then decided afterwards to become a train driver instead of pursuing a career related to their degree? I am 21 and in my second year of uni, I'm definitely going to finish my degree first but I'm considering applying for a trainee train driver position after I graduate. I like the sound of the potential salary along with the job description since I prefer working in solitude most of the time, I can maintain focus for long periods of time, I don't drink alcohol at all or use illegal drugs, I can handle shift work, I have decent customer service skills from jobs I have worked in the past, I have a lot of patience and can remain calm in stressful situations, my reactions are pretty quick and I have good hand eye co-ordination from years of doing martial arts. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


Good job and steady money.

https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/job-profiles/train-driver
Quick, random thought, did anything ever come of this, and if so, any advice? I'm thinking of doing very similar
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mgi
20
Original post by Titan529
Has anyone one here completed a university degree then decided afterwards to become a train driver instead of pursuing a career related to their degree? I am 21 and in my second year of uni, I'm definitely going to finish my degree first but I'm considering applying for a trainee train driver position after I graduate. I like the sound of the potential salary along with the job description since I prefer working in solitude most of the time, I can maintain focus for long periods of time, I don't drink alcohol at all or use illegal drugs, I can handle shift work, I have decent customer service skills from jobs I have worked in the past, I have a lot of patience and can remain calm in stressful situations, my reactions are pretty quick and I have good hand eye co-ordination from years of doing martial arts. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


er, follow your heart and go for your dreams. Forget what people think! If being a train driver is what you want then go for it. Also, do bear in mind that lots of graduates deliberately choose careers that have nothing to do with the subject that they studied at uni! And that's fine!
Original post by greenallefc
Quick, random thought, did anything ever come of this, and if so, any advice? I'm thinking of doing very similar

I would definitely recommend it but it will take at least a couple of years before you would even start training assuming you were a successful applicant. There are very long waiting lists not just for training once you’ve passed the selection process but also a long waiting list just to sit the assessments and interviews. Sign up to job alerts for train companies (both passenger and freight) around your area. I don’t expect to see many trainee driver vacancies come up in the near future but if and when it does, make sure you apply for it as soon as you see it. Even if it says the job advert will be posted for 2 weeks, it’s very common for the job advert to be taken down a couple of hours of it being posted because the job is so popular (there are thousands of people applying!). Be patient, it will be a very long process and let’s say that a job advert for trainee driver came up, you probably wouldn’t get invited to assessments for many months.
It may be worth considering other operational roles such as Depot Driver or Guard. They could be used as a stepping stone to become a driver eventually and to be honest, they still pay pretty well compared to most jobs.

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