Mission: To be the number-one online fashion destination for 20-somethings in the world.
Fashion with Integrity is at the heart of everything we do at ASOS and it ensures that we source sustainably, trade ethically and inclusively, and work with others to transform the impact of our business on people, planet, animals and the environment
Want to read about the latest tech trends that are exciting us at ASOS? Whether you’re a hands-on coder or just keen to know what it’s like to be an ASOSer in Tech, head over to our blog. Written and curated by our very own ASOS Tech members. http://glassdoor.com/slink.htm?key=vQxYA
ASOS burst on to the scene in 2000 and hasn't looked back. We now have 9 country-specific websites, ship to 240 countries around the world with offices in the UK, US, France, Germany and Australia. We have 80,000+ product lines with 3,000+ being added every week. We have over 3.2 million visits daily and over 13 million active customers.
Our ambition is to be the world’s no.1 online fashion destination for 20-somethings, therefore it is vitally important to us that we continue to attract top talent across the globe to help us realise our goals.
We’re always looking for great people to join us – people who are as passionate as we are and, just as importantly, embrace change and innovation. As a place where fashion and technology make perfect partners, we have a real sense of excitement about the future and the possibilities it can bring.
So you know us and love us as ASOS. But people often ask where our name comes from (usually straight after they ask us how to pronounce it – it’s ACE-OSS, by the way).
The idea of ASOS started in 1999 when founders Quentin Griffiths and Nick Robertson (who’s still Non-Executive Director) had the idea of starting an internet business where people could find clothes or accessories they'd seen celebs wearing.
A website was registered in August 1999 and www.asseenonscreen.com went live in March 2000, with a full launch in June 2000 under the name AsSeenOnScreen. In fact, ASOS PLC and ASOS.com Limited were originally called AsSeenOnScreen Holdings PLC and AsSeenOnScreen Limited. By the end of that first trading year, the company won the Best Trendsetter Award by The Sunday Times – a sign of things to come.
Almost immediately, the business was referred to internally as ‘ASOS’, an abbreviation of AsSeenOnScreen. That led the directors and staff to realise that the website name needed shortening too.
In October 2000, we bought the easier-to-type domain name www.asos.com, although, at this stage, traffic to www.asos.com was directed to the www.asseenonscreen.com website, which remained the central site for the business. That was followed by www.asos.co.uk in August 2001.
Soon we began to sell more fashion than just clothes that had been ‘seen on screen’. This made the AsSeenOnScreen name even less relevant, so the brand started to shift to ASOS as the trading name.
From 2002, the name ASOS (in a logo form which has since evolved) began to be used on stationery and on the website. Email addresses changed to @asos.com and our marketing began to use ASOS rather than AsSeenOnScreen. In July 2002, the company advertised on the Pepsi Chart Show on UK commercial radio as ASOS. By September 2002, the march from AsSeenOnScreen to ASOS was unstoppable, as the first ASOS logo began to be used on the website, instead of the AsSeenOnScreen logo.
The website itself was next. By January 2003, we changed our homepage title tag to include the name ASOS at the beginning. In July 2003, we moved the ‘shop front’ of the online retail business to being branded as ASOS on the website www.asos.com. The re-direct to the old website was also reversed and www.asos.com went live independently. In the final move, our shareholders in August 2003 agreed to change the names of the AsSeenOnScreen Holdings PLC and AsSeenOnScreen Limited to ASOS PLC and ASOS.com Limited. And that’s how ASOS was born (bless!).
That’s enough looking back. We’d rather focus on tomorrow. So what are you waiting for? Go and explore the rest of ASOS!
As the fastest growing online retailer in the UK, we're constantly striving to push boundaries and drive our business forward.
We live and breathe our values of being authentic, brave and creative and thrive in a culture of restlessness and innovation, which is why we're always on the lookout for talented and inspired people to join the team - people who share our vision, who can make a difference and who want to be part of something big.
Our approach is simple: we work hard, and we do it because we love it. We're very proud of how far inspiration and hard work has taken us since we started in 2000, but we’re constantly looking for new ways to go faster, bigger, better...
So if you have the innovation and dedication to help take us to the next level, take a look at our careers website.
At ASOS, our core values define who we are, what we do and how we do it. We call those collective values The ASOS Way. To make sure we’re always supporting these values, the PLC board has created Do The Right Thing – the ASOS Code of Integrity.
The ‘Do The Right Thing’ code promotes integrity, best practice and appropriate corporate behaviours across our business, supporting the continued development of ASOS.
“ASOS customers genuinely care about integrity. They want the businesses they buy from to stand for something. They expect ASOS to be better than the norm, to lead the way, to stand out and have goals we believe in and act on, both now and in the future. We only make people feel great through fashion if we’re meeting those expectations. Do The Right Thing is therefore fundamental to ASOS being the kind of company our employees are proud to work for and that our customers are proud to engage with and buy from”.
Andrew Magowan
Counsel & Company Secretary
For more on our corporate responsibility efforts check out our PLC site.
Just like the rest of ASOS, our Customer Care Team is an ever-expanding success story. From a mere three advisors in 2000, there are over 1,300 of us at the moment – and our number keeps growing!
Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, which means that we try to get things right for them first time, every time. We're 24/7, we're multi-channel and we're truly global. All of this means that we strive to make our customer's journey with us something we're proud of.
We're an energetic, friendly bunch and we thrive in our ever-changing business. Whether we're reviewing orders, making sure customers are protected when they shop with us or whether it's having a chat with a customer seeking that perfect outfit, we enjoy being a part of the ASOS journey and being a part of its success.
Your career can grow with us - team leaders, project managers, resource planning and MI – we have it all! Come and be a part of it.
Helpful (1)
I worked at ASOS full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
This place raises the bar and some, it has the highest technical excellence of anywhere I've ever worked and has some of the most clever, competent people I've ever worked alongside. There's definitely a lot to learn and people to learn from.
You'll get experience developing cloud-based solutions that are resilient, high performing and scalable, all the while implemented using leading software engineering practices such as ATDD, BDD, TDD and Pair Programming.
ASOS offers a fantastic package with flexible working in a relaxed atmosphere where you can truly be yourself.
Since the bar is raised so high here, when the time comes and you move on you'll find it quite an adjustment having to work anywhere else. This is a compliment to the Birmingham office. Many people who end their journey at ASOS move on into very senior positions due to the valuable skills and experience gained here.
Cons
Once you've 'learned the ropes' the work isn't challenging, most of the hard problems have already been solved and much of the work is boiler plate rinse and repeat. If you're looking for pure software development then you may be disappointed, the software engineer role is more DevOps so much of the job is scripting and managing configuration where much of the job is spent in a web browser battling the tooling (although there are initiatives to solve this long term).
Not all the work is greenfield, much of the system is still in 'legacy' and thus you'll be dealing with horrible big balls of mud, but this is part and parcel of most companies. They are very slowly trying to migrate to cloud based solutions but this process will take several years.
Application
I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 4+ weeks. I interviewed at ASOS (London, England).
Interview
Recruitment agency handed my CV to the recruitment team. It started with People Experience (HR) over the phone and then two more interviews, one with line manager and second one with peers. Interviews were held near Mornington Crescent station
Interview Questions
