Luke served in the Royal Air Force for six years as an Avionics Technician on both CH-47 Chinook helicopters and C-130 Hercules fixed-wing transport aircraft. During his time in the forces he had acquired a lot of transferable skills and experience; this is exactly what the Rail Industry is looking for!
Luke was a ‘Beta tester’ of the course, meaning he helped test the online version of the Introduction to Rolling Stock course prior to its official launch. The idea being, to test the website function, payment system and video streaming via desktop, mobile app etc.
Luke was half way through the course when he received a call from Clemtech (a Rail Recruitment Agency); they offered Luke an interview for a job with Alstom (a train manufacturer and maintainer) as a High Level Technician (HLT).
Typically, the HLT role requires a decent amount of rail experience. As the name suggests, High Level Technicians deal with the more complex/difficult faults but also work closely with the engineering department, who are continually trying to improve the overall performance and reliability of the train fleet.
In an ideal world you’d need 2-3 years rail experience before being offered a HLT role. So landing this job with no rail experience was going to be a massive challenge. I’d recently spoken to someone who’d applied for a very similar job and not got it due to a lack of experience.
Luke sent me the job description; with this I was able to point him to the areas of the course most applicable to the train fleet he’d be working on. I’d worked on this train type before so I know them well. These trains are relatively new so the sections of the course concerning older train systems (such as DC motors and their control systems) were less relevant for this job.
Luke had his interview and aptitude tests a few weeks later. He told me that the Introduction to Rolling Stock course helped him a lot; he understood the company, the job and how it all fitted into the wider industry. Typically, people new to the industry don’t understand this but it's really important know.
He was also familiar with some of the rail terminology and schematic diagrams, which I know for sure will have stood out during the interview process and given him a confidence boost.
The next day Luke was offered the job which was a massive success. In the meantime Luke had also been offered a role with an aeronautical engineering company on an aircraft type he was familiar with. He eventually took this position but hasn’t ruled out the rail industry for the future.
Luke, it was an absolute pleasure mate! Thanks a lot for your detailed feedback on the course content and I wish you all the best for the future. Hopefully we'll cross paths again sometime soon.
If you’re leaving the forces and thinking about a job in the railway please get in touch with me, I’m more than happy to answer any of your questions. Just send me a direct message on LinkedIn.
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