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Like a lot of my team, I am really interested in how our social use of the internet can prepare us for work. Recently an article suggested that the ‘Generation Facebook’ IT skills are wasted at work. Essentially it is talking about some research telling us that people leaving education have a high level of confidence in their IT skills but that employers aren’t making the most of these skills. A couple of comments left suggested that the skills that people are gaining are more about confidence in using IT than knowledge of particular pieces of software and that therefore the skills aren’t necessarily tangible to employers.  

How useful is confidence? It’s essential! In many of our roles we are not looking for masses of IT knowledge and experience, we are looking for you to have the basics and the confidence to learn.  

As you can imagine at O2 we are really passionate about technology. We aim to make complex technology simple to understand and easy to use. This starts with our employees, if you have a passion for new devices then we will harness those skills and help you develop them, if you love browsing and downloading then maybe you would want to develop your skills in our data teams? With Facebook and Napster now available on O2 active your experience is invaluable to our customers.  

Our Broadband teams love trying to find solutions to technical problems and so use everything from X-Boxes to Apple Macs to try to reproduce problems and find solutions for our customers. We also have chat rooms so that we can all ask each other questions and benefit from each others experiences. 

We will help you to get the most out of your skills and develop them even further. For example our Bright Sparks site encourages anyone to log on and suggest innovative ideas. It then gives you the tools and resources to help you develop and share your idea with the whole business! 

Do you need to know how to use every kind of mobile phone or piece of technology? Of course not! We have all the tools you need; all you need is the confidence and enthusiasm to learn… 

   - Louise

Recently a lady that had applied to join our Customer Service team mentioned to me that she was surprised to have been offered feedback following her first interview with us. She was surprised because she had been successful and she had not expected to be given tips on what we would look for from her at the next stage. It got me thinking about feedback and how, why and when we offer it.

At some point in our career we are all unlucky enough to be turned down for a job that we were really excited about. It can be disheartening and you don’t always feel like asking for some feedback. Most employers should offer you the opportunity to get feedback if you are unsuccessful and if they don’t then you can always request it. Someone once told me that feedback is a gift, but it can often feel like unwanted novelty socks at Christmas! It can be hard to open yourself up to potential criticism but don’t worry. A good interviewer should be able to offer you positive and constructive feedback that will help to prepare you for your next interview. There may even be some really simple things that they can advise to really enhance your next application.

So, why would employers offer you feedback if you are successful at the preliminary stages? Well at O2 we believe that as with most things, interviews are a learning experience. If we invited you to a first interview for our Customer Service and Retail teams then we feel that you have something to offer, when you pass this stage we are really excited about meeting you at the second interview. We want to give you every opportunity to prepare for your next interview and so we will offer you some feedback. Don’t get too excited, we won’t be giving you the answers! What we will do is tell you what we think you have explained really well and we will give you some constructive feedback and tips on what we would like to see at the next stage. Hopefully this will help you fly through your next interview!

Would you like to hear feedback in between interview stages? Post a comment and let us know!

- Louise

One really simple way to increase your chances of success with your job application is to know who it is you’re applying to. That sounds simple enough doesn’t it - Why would you apply for a job not knowing anything about the role or the company? When you are looking for your next career move you’ll want to be sure that the company that you are applying to is right for you.

Squeezing in time to look for a new job can be challenging enough, so taking time to do a little bit of research might feel difficult. A little bit of your time invested in finding out about the company and the role is essential. One question you will almost always be asked at interview is ‘What do you know about our company?’  

The amount of information that you should try to find out really depends on the type and level of the role that you are applying for. Make sure that the information is relevant to the role that you are applying for and shows that you have thought carefully about the job before making your application. For example if you are applying for a Retail position then drop into one of the stores, have a look around and gather some thoughts on what you like and where you can see potential opportunities.

We try to put as much information as we can onto our careers site so that you can find out all about O2 before applying. Some companies will have 2 or 3 different websites so search around and see what you can find. Like most employers we love to see candidates that have taken the time to find out a little bit about us, popped into an O2 store and visited our websites. If there’s something you’d like to know about us, that you can’t find on our careers site then why not leave a comment on the blog or contact us via the site and we’ll do our best to help and we might even add the answer to our FAQ.

 - Louise