Vodafone Group > Reviews > Vodafone, the best place to be!

Author's product rating:   

Knowledge gained	Varied
Training	Varied
Responsibilities	Varied
General atmosphere	Good
Career prospects	It improved my career prospects

Advantages:	benefits, the people, the pay
Disadvantages:	corporate rubbish sometimes

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I've worked for Vodafone since 2005. I work in a retail store in a precinct as a Sales Advisor though I will be Senior Sales Advisor in a few weeks (if NVQs people get a move on). I originally started on 8 hours but am now on 30 hours plus overtime. Normally I do on average 38 hours per week.

Getting the job

A lot of things have changed over the years including on how they recruit people. I saw the job advertised on the Customer Service board in the precinct. I handed in my CV to the manager, he phoned me to arrange an interview, went to the store to have the interview and then was phoned that I'd got the job.
Now it's a little bit more complicated. The jobs are now advertised through Adecco, a poster in the store and our career's website, http://careers.vodafone.co.uk/.

When you visit the website, you can either search for a particular job in certain locations or you can submit your CV without choosing a job. Basically keeping your CV on file until there's a job opening in the location or the job description that you want.

If you've applied, you will have two telephone interviews that you have to pass before getting an interview in the store. They ask you about your experience and give you different scenarios and ask you to call on your experience and knowledge to answer their questions.

If you pass the telephone interviews, you will get invited to the store to have an interview with the manager (or manager from a different store if the manager is away or cannot attend for whatever reason) and either an assistant manager or a senior person. They will ask the usual questions that companies ask in interviews. Then the manager will ring you up to tell you if you have the position or not.

Induction

With Vodafone, there is the induction and in-store training. The induction can be before or after you have had your in-store training. It depends on when they are. The induction has changed since I went on it so the information might be a little out of date.

The induction was one day that told you all about Vodafone as a company, the past, the present and the future. What they expect from you as an advisor. You also do those role play games. Learn to work as a group. I remember that the food where I had my induction (the Hilton in Leeds) was lovely!
Now, the induction is three days long and incorporates the training we had do with last year. (Went down to Luton and it snowed.) Training was about how to handle customers, to go the extra mile if you can etc. They also tell you about Vodafone, what's expected of you as a trainee advisor (in my day, there was no such thing as a trainee advisor) etc.

In-store training has also changed since I joined the company. Before you did all your training of the different systems and basically anything to do with the job at your own store. Now, you go away for 5 days to a training store. You get your expenses paid so if you have to stay over or have to get the bus or train everyday, you will pay for it but they will reimburse you at the end.

Training

You might think that I've covered this with the induction section but no, there's more training after you've started. There are web-based courses and internal training. After your week at the training store (or my case no training store), you get to go to your store and learn. Believe me there's lots more to working in the mobile industry than you think. There's the different systems that you have to learn to help customers, there's lots of technical info like settings for WAP and MMS that you have to learn (or just pass it to me as I'm quite good at these). Also when there's something wrong with for example, with a customer's phone you have to know to eliminate things to get down to the bottom of the problem. Sometimes, it's is simple but other times, you have to send them away to work on the problem.

Basically, you learn all this from watching your team members work but I started in October just before the Christmas period. You either pick it up fast like I did or you won't make it. It's either sink or swim.

The web based module and courses are to learn new products, price plans, systems or if they change something to the way they were before.

There are also internal courses that are run on a regular basis that are revelant to your job title. Managers and assistant managers go on more courses than the other staff. I've been on two of them since I started. One was for Business and all about business price plans (though they have just changed it again) and another about customer experience and how to handle 'challenges'.

There's also roadshows. One in the summer and one just before Christmas trade. Sometimes we all go, sometimes it's just for managers and assistant managers. These roadshows gives us information on how the company is doing and gives more info on things to come.

Qualifications and education

Also something new in the company since I joined. NVQs! Before you filled in a booklet, you went to another store for a day to demonstrate everything you knew and you got your Senior Sales (or not).

Unluckily for me, I was in the middle of filling in that booklet, when the NVQs came in. Nobody knew what they were meant to be doing. They told me that I would have to start on Customer experience Level 1, which is for a trainee starts. I told my manager that this was unfair and after a few weeks (months) of waiting, I was told that I could go onto Customer experience Level 3 but I wouldn't get the NVQ as I didn't start at the bottom. I'm not really bothered about not getting the NVQ as I have a degree.

You have to complete Level 1 to become a trainee advisor, Level 2 is to become Sales Advisor and Level 3 is to become Senior Sales Advisor and Business Sales Advisor.

There's also the management NVQs, Level 2 is to become Assistant Manager when you have been Senior Sales Advisor for more than 6 months. Level 3 is to become Manager.

With the NVQs, you have to fill in a lot of paperwork and wait a long time for your NVQ assessor to get back to you.

Uniform

You wear a red company shirt and black trousers. We used to be able to wear any top that we liked with black trousers when I first started. I do miss that but I do understand why they changed the policy.

Reviews

Every month, you have 1-2-1s and every 6 months you have your PD a review of your performance during those 6 months. There can be action plans if you have fallen down on something badly. These 1-2-1s and PDs will determine how much of a pay rise you will get.

Benefits of working at Vodafone

You guessed it phones! You have the right to 2 normal staff contract with no line rental and calls, texts and data are half the price of normal. Third contract that you can have is called a Feast, where you get all unlimited calls and texts and upto 500mb of data, free insurance with no excess for £25 a month.

The normal staff contract are annoying sometimes as you either end up getting a phone that's been out ages or paying for a phone that new as you are classed as have the lowest contract thus paying for phones. Unlike been able to discount these phones for new customers, we can't discount it for ourselves.

The feast contract is brilliant value for money, the only thing is that you either have to give your phone back at the end of the contract or buy it for £50 depends on how much you like the phone I guess.

We also get 40% discount on accessories and used to get 20% on PAYT handsets but since February, we don't anymore. They said they might bring it back in.

Pension is another benefit. They will match up to 4% of what you put in so if I put in £60, they will also put in £60. Life insurance is also another benefit. If I were to die, my beneficiaries will get 5 times my basic salary. I pay 28p per month for that but it is free if you only want 3 times your basic salary.

Another thing is shares. For the last few years, every employee gets shares. You can't touch them for two years and if you leave the company before you can cash them out, you lose them.

There are also incentive to win things like holidays, vouchers, money, etc through mobile phone company like Samsung, Sony Ericsson. Also the reps come around and give you pens, key rings etc. It might be little but it all adds up.

Managers and Team members

I'm very lucky to have a great manager and brilliant team members. We all get along great and I'm lucky to work there. Yes, there are days where I get bored or extremely annoyed by the customer's attitudes. Thankfully, this is not every day. Lol you might be surprised to know that I nearly turned down the job as I didn't think I would like it. I thought the atmosphere would be like Phones4U (some of my friends work there) and that I would be fighting for sales all the time. Luckily, we work on store based commission. We work as a team to achieve targets and I think that's a much better way.

People outside my store

We have a excellent regional manager who listen to your queries and challenges. I have met quite a few different people through Roadshows, meetings and courses. Most of them are a great bunch of people and I would be happy to work in any other store across my region.

Salary

Depended how long you have been with the company, the salary can vary massively. People who start with in the retail stores start off on minimum wage for 21+ even if you're not over 21. After six months, you get a pay increase. Well, that's how it used to be. They are thinking of changing the way they do it so when you join start on more than minimum wage and you get nothing for when you pass your probation, which I think is a bit silly.
You also generally get a pay raise every year in June to start for July. This is between 1.5% - 4.5 % depended on your 1-2-1s and the profits of the company.
Of course, in addition to your basic salary, there's commission. Like I mentioned earlier, commission is shared by the team and is based on how many hours you have worked in that month. If you have worked overtime, you get more commission.

Overall thoughts

I can't speak for the whole of Vodafone as there are many different parts and departments but it's well worth it to work in the retail stores especially if you have a manager and team members like mine.
Though getting into Vodafone Retail now is quite hard, the job is rewarding most of time, the benefits and rewards are great and the pay is good. Higher than any retailer I've ever worked for.