This month saw the end of five years in the finance sector with a move in to fashion as I joined online retailer, ASOS.
During my time at Premium Choice (and, previously, KGM Insurance), I was lucky enough to work on some really exciting projects.They were relatively new to the digital industry so, with a blank canvas, I introduced a number of innovative products that allowed them to leverage online and digital into their traditional business models, revolutionising where possible.
For a broker that relied completely on telephone trade, this shifted to predominantly online thanks to the team’s efforts to push forward ecommerce, digital marketing and back office solutions.
Towards the end of last year, I realised it was time for a fresh challenge so got my CV up to date and uploaded it to a few recruitment sites. It wasn’t long before I was bombarded with endless calls and emails from recruitment agencies with completely inappropriate opportunities (they really need to work on their segmentation and stop wasting everybody’s time).
I was getting to the end of my tether and started to wonder if anything would ever come up.
Eventually, an email piqued my interest for a job based in Birmingham. It matched my (unique) skill set, career objectives and salary expectations so I pushed the agency for more.
It turned out to be ASOS. I was aware of the company having shopped on their site a few times and hearing of their impressive reputation so asked the agency to put me forward.
Following a brief technical test and interview at their London HQ, I was offered the role of UI Engineer in their new Birmingham offices.
The new site at the Custard Factory is completely focused on development so it’s almost got a “startup” vibe about it. A blank canvas (again) with new teams in a creative hub – the perfect environment for a fresh start.
The first week was predominantly based in London, shadowing the current teams to take in the company ethos, setup, Agile process and more. We’ll then be attempting to replicate the environment back in Birmingham with the opportunity and scope to improve where possible.
As a Microsoft house, I’m finding my feet again back in Windows and .NET but we’re in a transition period, migrating legacy systems into an MVC framework whilst taking the opportunity to refactor the UI along the way.
Needless to say, it’s all very exciting and I’m going to relish every single opportunity.