Women in Tech @ ASOS: A day in the life of… Georgie W(Head of Technology)
If you’re anything like me, I love hearing about career stories — not out of nosiness (OK, maybe a little), but curiosity and interest.
This ‘Day in the life of’ series gives you an insight into what a typical day looks like for our women in Tech at ASOS (hint: there isn’t one) and how they started their careers. Hopefully, you’ll take something inspirational away from it!
This one’s about Georgie who is a Head of Technology.
My alarm clock goes off…
I hate wake-up alarms — probably because there’s a lot of snoozing before I can get myself up at 7.30am — 8am, depending on meetings. I typically have a juice or something quick en route to work.
My commute to work…
I’m trying to do at least 30 minutes of learning and development. I’ll listen to different TED talks and podcasts on my way in. If I’m not particularly feeling it, I’ll watch Girls or The Good Wife.
I’m responsible for…
I’m a Head Of Technology at ASOS within our Commerce domain. I’m responsible for the Customer Profile team. It has two main customer areas — Identity and Saved Items.
Identity focuses on how customers register and log in, as well as how we keep all customer data secure. Saved Items is a way for customers to save their favourite products until later. We recently delivered new functionality around Boards — it’s great to see customers loving it so much.
My role is to look after the customer, security and business strategy for these areas. I work with the teams throughout delivery and make sure we’re 100% available for our customers from an operational perspective.
I’m also really passionate and involved in working to make the culture at ASOS Tech the best it can be, supporting our Women in Tech community and our ASOSers’ development and growth.
I got the job…
I started my career on a graduate scheme that required rotations around different business teams. It was an eCommerce business so we spent three months in the Tech department. I didn’t have any background in Tech before then but I fell in love with the people and problem-solving elements, so decided to stay.
Since then I’ve done various roles including project management, programme management and business analysis for different tech teams, from Infrastructure and Operations to Development.
I joined ASOS three years ago and have recently been promoted to Head of Technology. I didn’t apply anywhere else — I was so set on ASOS because of the amazing culture I’d heard about. I’m so glad I got the job because I love it.
My typical day looks like…
My day is focused around making sure the team know what they need to do and are excited to do it in the best possible way, using the right technologies. I’ll help answer any questions they have around possible challenges or prioritisation.
I work on the team’s strategy with our Product teams, Business Partners and Tech teams to make sure we’re doing the right things for our customers.
There’s also the occasional firefighting when there are production incidents (an issue with our website), so I will help understand what the best course of action is to fix it for our customers and help make any decisions. Aside from that, I work with our teams on recruitment, finances and third party management.
As part of our Women in Tech community, I’ve set up the ASOS mentoring scheme, so part of my time is spent finding amazing mentors to support the careers and personal development of our mentees. Oh… and occasionally I can be found making the most of our on-site facilities like the gym or nail salon!
Tell us what you get up to in the evenings…
On a more ‘exciting’ night, I catch up with friends and go out for dinner and drinks. One night a week I’ll be found at a gym class, and on Friday evenings I can usually be found at our local ASOS pub. On a ‘boring’ night I go home, makes delicious food with my husband and then watch David Attenborough or Catastrophe reruns.
My most memorable moment at ASOS…
After three years, it’s hard to just think of one memorable moment. Two weeks after I joined, I remember sitting at my desk and smiling. I had the realisation that I worked somewhere where my opinion was valued, I could be myself, have fun and deliver loads… that’s a pretty special combination.
The best part of my job…
I know everyone always says ‘the people’ and that is definitely my number one, because ASOSers are genuinely awesome. I’m going to be controversial and add a second (can I?). My number two would be the wealth of different communities, events and learning opportunities you can get involved in here.
My one piece of advice for aspiring women in Tech…
There are all sorts of different roles in tech and I think there’s something for everyone — from developers to project managers, data scientists to business analysts and UX designers. Give it a try — what’s the worst that could happen? You’ll learn what you do and don’t love and then can take it from there.
I really love this quote, ‘A girl should be two things, who and what she wants’ — Coco Chanel. I think it resonates no matter what industry you’re in. To me, it means be yourself and do what you love. If you do that, you can’t really go wrong.
Georgie Webster is a Head of Technology at ASOS. She heads up the Identity and Saved Items teams and is one of the Women in Tech community founders. Outside of ASOS she can either be found travelling or having a ‘quiet’ night in with wine, Britney (or any power ballad for that matter) and lots of dancing… her poor neighbours!
Kim Tang is a Cultural Change Advisor at ASOS Tech. Her superpowers include, but are not limited to: making Tech a place we all love to work. Kim loves personality quizzes, Wes Anderson films and food.
