Carl Phillips is our Group Tech Director here at AO, and since starting as a Developer in 2013, he’s risen through the ranks!
Here’s Carl’s story about his time at AO, what AO means to him and advice for anyone looking to join AO 👇
I joined AO in 2013, after working the first 6 years of my career at a management consultancy firm. I had enjoyed my time in e-commerce at trainline.com the most in my career, and I got a great sense of the culture when I interviewed, so joined AO as a Software Developer.
Back then, AO was still Appliances Online and it was actually only about 10% of the business, with a lot of our work coming from third party contracts. In terms of the Tech department, there was only around 30 people, with two very small software development teams. One looked after our websites, while my team worked on everything else, like the contact centre systems and product information management.
Even then, the culture was great. The transparency about how the business worked was something I found fascinating and even from a tech point of view, we were switched on. So I learnt a lot right from the beginning…
It’s been an interesting journey, and not one I had planned if I’m honest! I think whatever role I’ve been given, I’ve just tried to do it to the best of my ability. I’m pretty self motivating, so I’ve always tried to figure out for myself what we need to do to get better and go make it happen before someone asks me to.
It’s fair to say there’s been luck in my career. I’ve been in the right place at the right time, but I also think a big part of it has been that I’m always ready for the next role, seeing how I can help out and go above and beyond. That’s put me in a really good position for when opportunities have come along. When I can, I’ve made some leaps of faith for those opportunities and I’ve always backed myself to succeed, even if I haven’t worked out how I’m going to do it!
I’ve had opportunities to grow myself, to throw myself into new challenges and roles and to deliver some amazing technologies that have had a lasting impact on the business.
Over the last 18 years I’ve been fortunate to experience a truly phenomenal amount of change. I’ve seen the company grow and expand, and been part of several acquisitions and integrations. I’ve watched the company completely transform on the inside, growing it’s maturity whilst retaining that entrepreneurial spark that was part of what I fell in love with at the start. When I look at where we’ve changed, I like to think we’ve levelled up across the board.
Real change can take a long time to stick but the more you have to work at something, the safer it becomes.
I’m a believer that culture happens between it’s people. We’ve got a big team now, so we don’t just have one culture. AO has a set of values, and we try and live those and interpret those for AO Tech as much as possible. In terms of what I try and do to create a good culture for us, it’s all about highlighting the good things and praising the good work that our team has been doing. We want to be as inclusive as possible and open to all walks of life, and also represent our diverse customer base and I think our workforce has to represent that.
I always tell people that I never intended to stay here, or anywhere for 18 years but the 3 things that have kept me full of energy here over the years are the amazing people that I’ve been fortunate to work with, the constant change and new challenges to set myself to conquering and focus on technology as a differentiator for customers and colleagues.
I’d say it’s to make sure you can see things from a different perspective. I think of it a bit like a beach ball, where each side has a different colour. My side is blue, but yours could be red. We’re looking at the same thing, just from a different angle.
AO also isn’t for everyone…John, our CEO, always says that “we’ll teach you nothing but you can learn loads” and what he means is that AO’s culture rewards those who take responsibility for their own careers, the people who look for ways to improve their skills and knowledge. AO is great at saying “yes” to those people when they identify what they need to get to the next level and supporting them when they need it.
My journey at AO doesn’t feel even close to over. When I look back there’s always been an event horizon that I’ve been unable to see beyond, and a milestone at the end of it that represents something I can be very proud of when I achieve it, but I’ve learned over the years that AO will always have another hill for me to climb, with learning opportunities, hazards for me to overcome and a meaningful sense of accomplishment when I get there. I’ve never been more excited about what the future holds, or to be working at AO!