If you have decided you need to make a career change, or find another job due to the current pressure that companies are under, you need to see this as an opportunity to make the right choices to present your achievements to date in the best possible way. This will help to increase your chances of being called for that one foot in the door – the interview.

After taking the time to prepare your CV and cover page with a list of achievements and skills, you are now ready to introduce yourself to the world. You can create an online profile on job portals like LinkedIn and also the career portal of a company you would ideally like to work for, like Vodacom – one of South Africa’s top employers.

The current lockdown environment has flipped the world of work from being candidate driven to being employer driven. It has also increased the response rate on online job adverts. This means that the Talent Acquisition Partner (TAP) needs to be able to get to you easily and consequently, you need to prepare to give what is required for the role as advertised.

Vodacom has incorporated an interactive career portal, allowing you to see all the available jobs we have within the company, as well as allowing you to edit your profile whenever you need to – even after pressing submit to a role you are interested in.

Although the Vodacom careers portal may increase your chances of getting you a career at Vodacom or taking it to the next level within the company, we have come across a few common mistakes some applicants have made when registering and responding to our job adverts:

• Not including an updated CV which is tailored to the role you are applying for. It is important to be sure that you take the time to understand the job requirements and speak to them when submitting an application. It makes it easier for us to see why you are the ideal candidate.
• Relying on your CV to “auto-populate” the required fields in the application. Always double check that the application has all the information required. Carefully review your profile before you press submit.
• Not taking the time to follow the company’s application instructions, e.g respond to the qualifying questions / take the employment test as part of the screening process. This results in you being automatically disqualified from the process.
• Not having reliable and up-to-date contact details – email address especially, for that much needed follow-up interaction with the TAP even before you are eventually called in for the interview.
• Not proofreading your profile and CV submissions.

As TAPs, we do all we can to find the right candidate from the many applicants and in many cases, the right candidate can be missed if they did not present themselves in the best possible way and provide all relevant information in the most convenient way. Don’t miss out on increasing your chances of getting that role you are eyeing by following these simple instructions.

Gwendoline Sepoloane is a Talent Acquisition Partner with over 15 years recruitment experience.  She is currently the talent acquisition partner for Vodacom Business and CBU’s FTTX Department.