I agree with A320 here... and whilst train driving does sound all perfect and rosy, it's not as straight forward to get into as some here may suggest.
First off, the competition to even get someone at a TOC to so much as look at your CV is almost impossible... There are very few trainee driver jobs on offer a year and when they do come around, applicants are in the 10's of thousands. And guess what? There's only 4 positions available! So yeah, I'll leave the maths to you on that one...I've often argued that in my opinion getting a train driving job is significantly harder than getting into the RH seat of a 737. I've been applying to TOC's for over a year now and haven't had so much as an assessment invite as of yet. For some perspective, I got accepted onto EZY's CTC course on my first ever attempt at applying. Also, being a pilot unfortunately won't get you any special treatment throughout the application phase, they're incredibly picky and selective and sometimes it feels like pure luck... besides, nobody will even look at your CV until the very last stages of recruitment, so prior to the final interview stages your background is pretty much irrelevant.
Adding to this, most TOC's now implement at 60 minute commute rule... fine, right? Not exactly, you have to live 60 minutes away from your base BEFORE you apply, most TOC's now don't even allow applicants to relocate on the condition of a job offer... I've had many applications rejected because of this. So how many different TOC's operate within 60 minutes of your address? I have two - one last hired new trainee's in 2014 and the other one last hired earlier this year and now probably won't again for another few years, this is exactly the kind of problem i'm talking about.
Of course, I hope none of you have to end up looking for alternative careers anyway! Good luck to you all!
