Meet John: Transitioning into a cybersecurity career with carsales.com Ltd

Since its inception in 1997, carsales.com Ltd has grown to employ 1,700 people across 9 countries. With that growth has come an increased need for workers with digital skills.

As General Manager of People Partnering, Anthea Corridon, explains, “I think it's well documented that Australia doesn't have enough skilled digital professionals to meet demand so we're all competing for the same small pool of talent.”

Digital Jobs has provided carsales.com Ltd with an alternative pipeline of talent to that of traditional recruitment avenues.

“What really appealed to us was the diversity of candidates and accessing a new talent pool who are really passionate about their new career opportunities,” says Anthea.

“The people we've had through the program so far have brought their maturity, life skills, previous work experiences and a real passion to learn and to grow their career in a digital space. They’ve also been able to contribute to our business in ways we didn’t expect. It means they’re able to jump into a project and be a part of the team from day one.”

"John was able to make a valuable contribution from day one thanks to his training and previous experience. He helped build our new framework, processes and procedures for our global cybersecurity system.

After spending many years working in sales roles in the IT industry, John found stepping into a cyber security role a great opportunity to apply his experience in a new career direction".

“I think it was skills like stakeholder management and running workplace activities that you don’t get taught but just pick up, that helped me. I’ve definitely made the right decision in choosing cybersecurity and taking up the opportunity here at carsales.”

Anthea sees the value of the Digital Jobs program to businesses looking to recruit workers for upskilling in digital roles.

“carsales.com Ltd would 100 percent recommend the program to other businesses. We've had an overwhelmingly positive experience. The candidates have been really high quality, and I think for us, it's opened up a whole new talent pool that we're really excited to have access to.”

This story was initially published in 2022.