Player. Players.

Perfect.

Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Asos Tech podcast. I'm your host today, Chris He.

Him.

And I am a QA engineer at Asos.

Hi, I'm Lisa Wilson. She her. I'm an engineering manager at Asos. We'll hand over to our guests from Northern Ireland.

Hi, I'm Rasheen. She her and I'm an associate data engineer at Asos in Belfast.

Hi, I'm Ryan Hehem, and I'm associate software engineer at Asos.

Thanks, everyone. So nice to meet you all. And nice to meet you, too, from Northern Ireland. So, question that, I want us to all start off with a bit of an icebreaker it's a question about your favorite ice cream. So let's go, Lucy, and then we can start with the guests, Roshi and Ryan. So, Lucy, what's your favorite ice cream?

My favorite ice cream? That's quite a hard one, because for me, I've recently gone dairy free, so I miss a lot of ice cream. So something probably salted, caramel or maybe chocolate, but you can't seem to find it anywhere.

Yeah.

Roshim, what about you? What's your favorite ice cream?

Mine's quite controversial. The toothpaste flavor ice cream. I go with mint chocolate chip every time.

Mint. Fair enough. You slide off with a toothpaste. That was fair enough.

I'm Ryan. What about you?

Mine's just really boring. Like, I only really like vanilla and honeycomb, so not too adventurous.

I respect it. I am actually a vanilla fan. That's my go to straight away.

Everyone wants the best for one another and everyone is each other's biggest fan. We've had various talks in the office, including the sharing of technical knowledge to sharing our journeys with mental health. No matter if you're a part of a team of five or a team of one, in Belfast, everyone feels connected in some way or another. From the social committee to the charity committee, asos Northern Ireland has it covered.

All right, sweet. So, to get right into it, could you give us a bit of info about the culture, the Northern Ireland tech hub? Maybe you can also give a breakdown of what exactly it is. Tell us a bit about maybe how it started.

Yeah, sure.

I started working at Asos in March 2022. At that time, there was just under 30 people in the Belfast office, so we've grown pretty quickly from there. There's over I think there's 98 employees now, so it's kind of hard to imagine that just over a year ago, that Asos in Belfast didn't exist and it's actually been named as one of the top companies to work for in Belfast. But I think before I started at Asos, it was always somewhere I wanted to work and it met and exceeded my expectations. It's such a warm culture and as cliche as it is, it's cliche to even say it's cliche. It really does feel like a big family and everyone's so warm and there's a real culture of bringing other people up with you and supporting each other as much as we can.

Yeah, I'm glad to hear that you're having a great time, actually. That's really great to hear. And on top of that, I feel that most people, even myself, have a little bit of a lack of knowledge about what it is. Northern Ireland tech hub is actually about what it was put in place for. Can I review give us a bit of a spill or breakdown about what it is the Northern Ireland tech hub has been set up for?

Yeah, I think interestingly, in my previous role, I started working with Asos when they first came to Northern Ireland and I think the whole point of it was that tech skills are in high demand, but there's a real shortage of them and it's a competitive market. So it was like another place that had quite good talent in Northern Ireland in the tech scene and it's a really thriving sort of industry, so I think that it was to try and capitalize. It's obviously really tough in London, highly competitive and it's given another option of getting sort of good technologists into the company and also then the sure skilled academy where you can bring people in from various diverse backgrounds and train them up, which is obviously was a big part of it. I think it's worked really well so far and it seems to be a huge success from the first cohort coming through right up until now, I think cohort Four is joining, it's been a huge sort of success story in Northern Ireland so far.

Yeah, it definitely sounds like it from Rushing, given a bit about her experience as well. Was there anything else you want to add about the culture, the experience you've had?

So I've been here since October, but is Rushing a little bit earlier. It's like really warm, friendly environment and people around you genuinely want to help and help you succeed as well. I think everybody also plays a part in building the culture, but it gets set at the top and I think they've probably hired the right sort of individual who's driving that every day and building it. So it's always a tough thing to describe a culture because it's like, what is it but touch or feel it or see it? But I think it is about just everybody being themselves and supporting and helping other people. And certainly all the senior engineers are obviously so helpful to us because we're learning something brand new and we can need that guidance and it's probably not a lawful lot of places that would have that sort of investment in people right from scratch. I find it personally really benefiting.

Amazing. I'm curious to know erosion. Ryan, have you met in Northern Ireland in the tech hub itself? Has that been a thing that's been an option for you?

Yeah, we've met in the office before. We do have lots of events and social and charity events and things on in the office. So we've had coffee mornings, quiz, sunrise, social walks and multiple nights out. So, yeah, everyone does have lots of opportunities.

I was going to ask as well. So you are the first Cohort, right?

Yes.

And I guess, Ryan, you're like in.

The latest one, I'm number three, I think the ones that Lissy is just sort of working with NYSE Four.

Yeah.

Okay. So have you spoken to people from different cohorts to understand what has changed from the start till now? If there's anything that's improved, I think.

They do go into a lot of feedback, I think, to improve them. And I think feedback, maybe the likes of Roche and then Cohort Two and so on gave improved our kind of experience and onboarding stuff as well. And then maybe the feedback that we gave, it's improved for Cohort Four. So I think it gets better each time. Rasheen probably was like the guinea pig stage and she's then passed on all that feedback to improve for everyone else.

Yeah.

You've definitely noticed how much the process, even onboarding process, as Ryan said, has became more streamlined as more cohorts have come on board. But yeah, it's brilliant to see.

How did you hear about that then? I'm just curious.

Well, there's a body system between the new cohorts that come on and then people that have come in already through the Cohort, through the Assured Skills Academy.

Right. Who's your buddy?

My body was Olivia on Cohort Two and then she's had a body, so it's like grandparent in the body system.

So you're like a bit of a great grandparent now?

Yeah, absolutely.

I really enjoy being a part of a culture that accepts people for who they are and recognizes that our differences make us stronger. It's the first place that I've worked that truly puts their people at the center of every decision and empowers them to make positive change. And there's definitely a tangible excitement when we all get together to learn or socialize, which makes it such a fun and welcoming environment for people to relax and have a good time while collaborating on important projects.

So we've spoke a lot about the Cohort program and the Assured Skills program. So do you mind, Ryan, explaining what that is?

Yeah, I think it obviously differs a little bit from Russian Moves was big data and we were sort of dotnet, and the latest one I think is Java, maybe. And so the teaching is fairly similar, it's just changes on the syllabus depending on what you're learning. But the whole sort of Shared Skills Academy is where you go for ten weeks to Cirque, which is one of the education providers colleges in Northern Ireland, and you get like ten weeks of training and Asos are quite heavily involved in that as well. So you get like networking lunches, you get one to ones every sort of couple of weeks with a member of the Belfast team. You get introductions to various people in the London teams and stuff like that as well. Throughout. And you get ingrained in this sort of asos. So it's almost like whilst you're not working for asos in those ten weeks, it feels like you're already ingrained in it by the time that you start your positions. So it's quite sort of intense training and once we come into it after that the training and sort of development continues and actually it probably enhances a lot as well, so you get to learn best practices in industry and learn from really senior people as well. So I think it's really good program. I personally was going to do the software development masters, so you go back to Uni for a year, do that, then you have to come out and get the experience you're now getting as well, so this gives you the best of both worlds. So you get the ten weeks of training but then it goes in and you get now to work in an industry which especially for a company like Azos, being a me them. So I think that's probably my experience of it. Rushing was first, so she's probably got more to add than me.

Yeah, I think it is. It's a brilliant opportunity for people that don't have a tech background to get into tech, although I did a computing degree at university, so I came from that background anyway. But even on Cohort One, we had teachers, people from marketing backgrounds, finance. I know there's taxi drivers and got all sorts of backgrounds. And although people come from all sorts of diverse backgrounds, it's so evident that everyone holds the same values and are passionate about tech and want to contribute towards the amazing culture that we've started building in asos office.

No, I love that. It just reminded me of my experience when I did my course before I came into Asos and I remember there was this real feeling of our maraudery, it's like we're all going to survive together type of situation, no one left behind. Is it a similar kind of vibe as well? It definitely sounds like it, yeah.

That's one thing I actually was just going to add. It's really, actually nice. Because once you start a new job, obviously you come in and you can know no one on your first day. Another sort of job. But this one you come in and you've already met, obviously. Most of the senior people in Belfast throughout and some in London throughout your time at the Academy. But also then you start with like 18 or 19 sort of other people as well that you already know for ten. Weeks, so it's a lot easier to settle in, I think. And I said is very warm and the culture is great, but I think that just helps with everybody knowing each other already.

One of the really nice things we've seen on Cohort Four is that the team are really working together and they're spending a lot of time together, going out and doing things after, like the teaching time as such. And everyone is given an opportunity and there is a place for everyone when they come into asos, so it's no competition. We're not having to take ten out of 20. Everybody is there to work together and work off each other and it's a really nice environment. So it's really good to see that has happened across all of the cohorts.

Yeah, I think it's just like, it comes across that the companies invest it in the people and they will really want them to be a success. It's not just sink or swim type environment.

Rashid, you said about your background before you came into the Academy and Asos Tech. Do you want to just go a bit more into depth about that?

Yeah, so I did a computing degree at Queens in Belfast. I graduated last year, but I always wanted to work at Asos just because it was such a big name in not just my university house, but my house at home. I was always shopping from them, so it was just a perfect fit for me. As soon as I seen the opportunity come up online, I was probably the first applicant because I nearly had the application written before the advertisement came out. But, yeah, I think it is a perfect fit for me and I'm delighted to be here.

Cool, thanks. And Ryan. What about you? How did you get into the Academy?

Yeah, so I did a law degree in a Master's and stuff at Uni and I just found it really dry. I didn't really want to pursue it, but I started it so far, I'll complete it anyway. And then I got out and I was, like, got a job in recruitment for Hello West. Didn't intend to stay for six years, but I did. And I think it was because I really enjoyed the technology. And obviously you find out loads of stuff about what's happening in the industry and so on, and then I was going to do the masters, as I say. But then this came up and I was just like I thought this was just such a better opportunity to get real industry experience. And I still would agree with that. I think it's, like, much better experience than you would have got gone back to university for a year, because you're like work and stuff that you get to do is probably way advanced compared to the stuff you would do on a degree.

Yeah. And you're getting advice from professionals, experts, like industry experts, people have been doing it very beneficial.

Being part of the Asos North non tech hub feels like a really unique opportunity from both attack and people's standpoint. We are growing really fast, building new teams and strengthening existing ones, all while keeping constant focus on people and culture. The focus on people here isn't like anything I've seen before in my career. We also have a wealth of resources to learn from with internal training courses on top of all the Microsoft stuff as well. The icing on the cake is we get a day a month to work on this as part of Tech develops. I genuinely can't think of a better place to be right now in Tech.

So in terms of the ten week structure, Ryan, it would be great to get your point of view as you're the most recent person to go through the cohort. What is the ten week course like?

So the first week, the first sort of a day or so is like an Azos Tech over day where you meet and get an introduction to company and then the next couple of days, because there's so many obviously different levels of skill, some people obviously come from backgrounds where they wouldn't even be using a computer at the moment. So it's like getting up to speed with Microsoft teams and all the sort of different things that you just need to operate on, the things that goes on for a few days. And then we had some agile training for about two days. So that completed the first week, then the next sort of two and a half weeks were about net C sharp. So we learned the basics around that and moved on to Design Thinking Week, which has actually not got an awful lot to do with Tech. It's more about how you think and be creative. It's a chance to be creative for a week, essentially, and work in grips and a bit more softer skills. And then we went on to SQL unit testing and then we did our Azure stuff for a week, and then we had the certification exam for that. And the final sort of weeks was in Logic apps before the project week down, when we get a chance to put it all together to build our project for our final sort of week there. That's pretty much a summary from what I can remember.

I'm stunned by the fact that you said people are in the first week trying to come to terms with getting started with a computer and all these different technologies and then immediately it's like net SQL, get an exam. I'm like if you were a bit anxious about using a computer in the first place and no, week one, get to all the way to week five, I think you were saying towards the end, doing exams and stuff, that's pretty incredible.

Yeah, it's so good. Like the journey for everybody. You probably once you're going through, you don't realize actually you think that you're not learning that much or you're struggling to take it in. But actually, once you come towards the end and you look back on what I knew when I started and what I know now. It's like whilst you're obviously not an expert, it really has built up little bits of the basics. And then now that we're in the company, we're building that up even further. And it's been a process that I think is really good. And obviously you're not expected to even get the certification and stuff that doesn't it's just a chance to get it, so you didn't have to pass it to complete the course or anything. It was just a chance to get something out of the course as well.

Brilliant. Are you able to tell us a bit about the completion rate in terms of the exams? You say it's not mandatory.

Yeah. So everyone in our cohort got the certification.

Amazing. Solid. Yeah. Great work. Great work to all of you.

It's really interesting from an Asos perspective as well. So I do the lunch sessions with my cohort and sitting in and going through. And the first one, they're really quiet and they don't want to ask questions. And then the next one, they're starting to get a few questions. And then by the end of it, they're all really technical questions and they want to know more information and how do they get more information and what they're going to do for their final presentation. So it's always really interesting to see, even in such a short period of time, how much you've all learned, how much you've all started to understand, and also living the Asos values back at us and really bringing that to life. So it's been a really good experience, I think, from an Asos perspective as well, watching everyone grow, seeing and you really want everyone to succeed and you're really invested, wanting them to kind of succeed on this journey.

Yeah, exactly. And it's nice seeing people that maybe do come from more of a tech background on the cohorts, helping out other people that don't have any experience as well. It just brings everyone's skill along and it is brilliant looking back to see how much you've learned in those ten weeks and then looking back at the last week of the cohort, how much you've came on since then as well. It's night and day.

Amazing.

There are so many things that make Asos Belfast a great place to work. I've tried to narrow down to three things, which is quite hard, but I would say the people, we've got the best bunch of people from just such a wide range of backgrounds, and we also have such a close connection to Asaucers in London, which is great. Number two, I would say culture. We've established such a great, open, warm culture in Belfast. We really are encouraging people to live the Asos values, to be themselves and be brave. So I would say my third favorite thing about Asos and I is the crack. We always have so much fun together in the office. Everyone tries to welcome everyone, everyone is approachable and it's just a lot of fun.

So, Lucy you've spoken a bit about your experience and your interactions with the Northern Ireland tech hub. Could you also break that down a bit more and tell us what you've been up to and also share some stories that you're aware of?

Yeah, so since starting with Asos in September, I've been working with Cohort Four, so I've been quite involved with them. So, as Ryan said at the beginning, we went over and did the first day with them, so that was really fun. And we got to meet them and did some cool like icebreakers, and everyone had to try and get in a line in birth date order without using any words. And we also the people that come on board with the cohorts, they'll be working with people from the London office, Birmingham office and obviously people based in Northern Ireland. So we've been bringing on what we call seed roles to help support the colleagues out there. As part of each cohort. They'll have engineering managers, engineers, lead engineers that will be coming on board in Northern Ireland to support the team so that they've got face to face interaction.

With someone, got back to our guests.

Ryan, did you in person?

Yes, we went in person for most of it. It was really beneficial to go in person and then we had our first day in person and we also had the Icebreaker. We had to line up the Ever for fight speaking, so it was fun. There was a lot of cheating going on phones, but is it cheating or.

Is it using what is available to you?

No one spoke, so I suppose it was still within the rails, to be fair.

You're just making use of what's around you.

Yeah, resourceful.

Exactly.

We went with pens and paper.

How about yourself, Richard? Were you in person as well?

Yeah, we were in person for ten weeks and then still go in a few days a week now. But yeah, I much prefer being in person. I feel like you learn much more.

Yeah, I guess there's a nice balance, especially these days with the whole remote thing. Nice to do a bit of both, see people, especially for the social part.

Absolutely.

I was going to say, we've heard that people are relocating to Northern Ireland to help support this cohort. So is there anybody that has come from quite far to help you out and to live in Northern Ireland to support you?

Yeah, we've had one or two people who's relocated from the likes of India. We've actually had sort of someone relocate into one of those seed roles, or a role that came off the back of that like a big data sort of solutions architect. Then we've had some people on the cohorts who have come here just to get that opportunity as well. There was a person on my cohort who relocated for this opportunity as well, or one like this, and has stayed here now as a result of it. So it's been really good for those opportunities as well.

Cohort, too. Someone has relocated from Canada and then those more senior roles, and Ryan's Cohort, they've relocated from India. So quite far.

Yes. Epic. So it's very nice to see, actually, and I can only imagine how beneficial it is to not only meet people that are bringing knowledge from other setups. The culture part as well.

Yeah, it's cool.

Yeah. One of my favorite parts, actually, apart from obviously getting in and getting experience and stuff, always, the cohorts was not just like, diversity of where people come from, but actually backgrounds, because you now meet people who you would probably never have met because your jobs were so different and you probably wouldn't have crossed each other's paths. And now we're good friends with just people you wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet because you were so different and had different interests to meet people through doing the same thing. So I find that part really good as well.

Yeah, 100%.

So you can learn so much about each other, even just talking about your backgrounds. And we can teach them so much by Irish culture and they can teach us by their backgrounds and culture wherever they're from.

That's amazing. Now that you've said it, what's one thing you want to teach us about Irish culture?

Oh, that's a good question.

Definitely has to be about the breakfast. Like, you need to adopt the Irish Breakfast.

Oh. What's? The Irish breakfast?

There's a lot more bread involved than there is maybe in the English breakfast.

40 types of bread.

Is it just taste on the plate? What is it?

You get like, soda bread and potato bread, but there's definitely a lot more sort of bread. And no tomatoes out of a ten. We wouldn't do that to get proper cut tomato.

Right, okay, I get what you mean.

We've had some really exciting news that has just come out about the Northern Ireland office. So, Rashim, would you be able to tell us what's happening soon?

Yeah, we are relocating just less than 500 meters down the road to the beautiful Custom House Square building in Belfast overlooking the River Lagon. So very exciting times to be at asos nice.

You're moving closer to the salmon, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Or the big fish, as it's known. It's supposed to be the salmon of knowledge, but everyone just calls it the big fish.

Rasheen, do you want to talk us through what the future of the Ni Tech hub looks like and what exciting things are coming up soon? Yeah.

So another exciting thing in the pipeline for 2023 is Asaucer teaming up with Queen's University in Belfast, where I actually went to university. They're teaming up to provide a number of talks on campus, so that'll be an opportunity for Asaucers to go in and give talks about either technical or more soft, skill based things to those maybe considering careers at Asos.

And Ryan, what else is going on?

Yeah, and just like the Queen's talks internally, people share their bite size learning talks set up to share experience of the entire sort of my office with the rest of them, so I think there's loads more of them planned for 2023. So there's been some good ones this year on like Imposter Syndrome and then there's been some recent one on dev environments and stuff. So they're like the mix between things that you can just take into any sort of walk of life and then other ones that are more tech focused. So there's something for everybody in there on that side, I think.

Perfect, thanks. It's really interesting to hear what's going on internally and then obviously we've got cohort five, so the learning and the people coming in is just still going to continue, so hoping that will be around mobile apps, but we'll see. And we've also got recruitment, which is still ongoing in Northern Ireland, so those seed roles that we spoke about earlier, we're still continuing to recruit for those. So check out our website if you want to find out more. It's been great talking to you today, so thanks very much for your time. It's been amazing learning more about the Northern Ireland tech hub and seeing what's going on there. Just one last thing to wrap up. Rasheen, what is your favorite item of clothing that you bought from Asos so far?

That's a really hard question, but I'm going to have to go with a recent purchase. I got a levi's place from Asos a few weeks ago and I've never had more compliments on a piece of clothing in my life. From coffee shops to in the office, everyone just wants this place, but it's been out of stock for weeks.

Love it.

Nice. Ryan, what about you?

Mine is probably a Tommy Hilfiger jumper I got from it that was out of stock for ages and I came back in and managed to get it. So happy with that one.

Lucy, what's yours?

I brought, which isn't normally my normal style, a leopard print dress thing, which I am loving because it is very forgiving in many different places and you can eat a big dinner in it, so definitely worthwhile. And you get compliments, so swimming around.

Lovely.

What about you?

I think I'm going to go with the classic white pair of Air Forces, air Force ones.

Nice. I thought you were about to say a white socks.

There those two to go with the Air Forces as well. You do need a pair of those. And I just want to say to everyone, thanks for your time. Roshin, Ryan, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to entertain us with all your lovely pieces of clothing that you've bought and all the wonderful information you've told us as well about the Northern Ireland tech hub. And I'm sure everyone will. Appreciate hearing about it as well. Lucy, my co host thank you all for your time.

More than welcome.

Thanks for having us.

I really enjoy being a part of a culture that accepts people for who they are and recognizes that our differences make us stronger. It's the first place that I've worked that truly puts their people at the center of every decision and empowers them to make positive change. And there's definitely a tangible excitement when we all get together to learn or socialize, which makes it such a fun and welcoming environment for people to relax and have a good time wise collaborating on important projects.