Thinking about applying for a job at Octopus? What you should know
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Oscar Wilde
Applying for jobs can feel tougher than ever. There are more candidates, fewer open roles and a lot of noise about what “good” looks like, especially when new tools like AI are changing how candidates prepare and apply for jobs.
At Octopus, we want to spend more time helping people feel ready, not making the application process feel like a guessing game.
This page is here to set you up for success before you apply. It’s not designed to give you secret answers, or to tell you how to be someone you are not. It is here to help you understand what we look for, how to approach application questions and how to show us your real strengths, motivation and curiosity.
We hire across lots of teams, countries and roles, so this guidance is broad by design. Whether you are applying for your first role, changing careers, or already know a lot about Octopus, we hope it helps you feel more confident and more able to submit an application that feels true to you.
The best applications don’t just tell us what someone has done. They help us understand how someone thinks, what they care about and why Octopus might be the right place for them to do great work.
Don’t apply as the person you think we want. Apply as the person who can genuinely make a difference here.”Olivia Wray, Global Head of Talent Acquisition
Be yourself
One of the most important pieces of advice we can give you is to be honest about who you are, what you enjoy and what you're good at.
It can be tempting, when applying for a job, to try to become the person you think a company wants to hire. But the best applications are rarely the ones that sound the most polished or the most “perfect”. They are the ones where we can see a real person behind the words: what motivates you, what you care about, how you think and what you might bring to the team.
At Octopus, we often talk about the idea of a dry stone wall. A dry stone wall is strong because each stone is different. They are not identical, and they are not forced into the same shape. They fit together because each one brings something useful to the structure. Listen to Greg Jackson, our CEO, and Rebecca Dibb-Simkin, our CMO, talk about this.
That's how we think about great teams too.
We’re not looking for one single type of “Octopus person”. We are looking for people with different strengths, experiences, ideas and ways of thinking, who want to use those things to help us do great work for customers and make a big green dent in the universe.
So when you apply, try not to write what you think we want to hear. Think about what you can genuinely bring to the table. What are you good at? What do you enjoy? Where have you made things better for a customer, a team, or a project? What have you learned from the work you have done so far? And why does this role at Octopus feel like the right place for you to do more of that?
You do not need to have followed a perfect path. You do not need to pretend to know everything. What matters is that you show us how you think, what you care about, and how your own strengths could help add something to the team.
The strongest applications help us understand the real you, not a version of you shaped to fit a job description.
Character matters more than ability. Ability matters, but character matters more. And I think smart people who have got the right character can learn tremendous amounts very, very quickly… Integrity matters more than anything. You've got to be able to trust people. There's no politics. You want people's energy going into something we're all going to benefit from."Greg Jackson, Octopus Energy CEO
Can I use AI on my application?
As a company built on technology, we fully champion the fact that AI tools are fantastic for kickstarting your thinking. At Octopus, we use them across our teams every day to brainstorm, refine our thinking, and work smarter. We know how helpful these tools can be when you’re staring at a blank page, trying to figure out how to structure your thoughts or unpack a complex idea. AI is a brilliant tool for expanding your horizons, and we completely understand why you might want to use it as a sounding board while preparing your application.
But while AI is a great assistant, it can’t replace your own voice. AI doesn’t know your specific journey, the unique lessons you’ve learned along the way, or the real motivation behind your application. When answers are entirely AI-generated, they tend to lose their edge. They sound perfectly polished, but they also end up sounding like everyone else. We aren't looking for a perfectly polished answer; we want to hear your genuine ideas, your specific aspirations, and your unique perspective.
So, how should you use it? Think of AI as your editor, not the author. Feel free to use it to check your spelling, clean up your grammar, or help clarify a sentence you're struggling with. But when it comes to answering the application questions, especially why you want to work at Octopus, please make sure those thoughts and ideas are entirely your own. The same goes for your CV: resist the temptation to let AI fill it with a wall of generic buzzwords. Keep it personal, keep it human, and tell us your story in your own words.
Why Octopus Energy?
In every Octopus application we’ll ask why you want to work for us. It may seem like a generic question but your answer is really important to us and will play a role as we build our shortlist.
Not only is this a chance for you to stand out, but it is also the first opportunity for us to find out more about you!
Things we love to hear about:
What's really important to you?
How does Octopus align with your values?
Your genuine impression of us
An encounter you have had with Octopus
We really encourage you to make this your own (remember, AI won't do that!), give a sense of who you are, and help us imagine how we would work together.
I'm in! Where do I start?
Being the largest and most awarded energy supplier in the UK means there is a lot of information about us out there and we TOTALLY understand that right now you must be thinking, “Oh goodness, where do I even begin?”
Here are a few links that might be helpful to you but you are absolutely welcome to dig as deep as you want!
What makes Octopus - Octopus! This is a really good overview of who we are and why we are different!
The Octopus Podcast Would highly recommend listening to episode number 1 on our culture and hear what Greg says about the dry stone wall.
Our blog The most up-to-date information; you can search for any specific topics that interest you
Don’t just take our word for it You can check out reviews on Glassdoor and Trustpilot to give you a peek behind the curtain of what it is like to work here or be a customer!
Speculative applications
In true "dry stone wall" form, we are always looking for amazing people to join our team and we understand that you may not fit exactly into the roles we have available at the moment. However, we are always open to speaking to really talented people who are interested in joining Octopus.
If you don't see anything that suits you, pop your details on our speculative application page. We earmark standout applications for a special list, which is the first place we look when a new job comes up. If we find something that we think is a match, we will absolutely reach out and have a chat.
Fun fact! Nicki Slater-Arnold, an Octopus writer who is putting this webpage together right now (very meta), followed that exact link and got a call a few months later inviting her to apply for her dream job. It works!