The Truth About My First Week At Carmoola

I joined the Carmoola team at the start of the year, carrying a mixed bag of emotions; excitement, dread, uncertainty? Honestly, I was petrified. Starting a new job is scary no matter the role. As a customer it is always reassuring having an idea on what happens behind the scenes, so I am spilling the tea – my first week at Carmoola.   

When you meet a new bunch of people you often think more about the way you act and try to find ways to gel with everyone. Thankfully I soon realised that banter and laughs are an everyday phenomenon here at Carmoola. You know what they say, practice makes perfect and I’d like to say our banter has become an art, beside Kas' - he could work on it a bit 😉

Read on to find out what stood out to me the most at Carmoola...

The customer always wins 🏆

I’ve been lucky to have spent my career in businesses that have a strong customer focus, but, Carmoola takes it to the next level. Businesses going through major growth all seem to have the same problem: how do we scale the customer base without sacrificing incredible experience  and, needing a huge team supporting customers?

The answer is simple. Always be automating. This is one of our core values here at Carmoola. The app gives customers freedom to self serve and the support system is designed for the team to be proactive when it comes to issue resolution, leaving the support team available for complex queries the system just can’t support, and plenty of time to wow our customers who choose to contact us. Our Product teams have the right goals ➡️ how can we make this as simple, fast and seamless as possible for our customers.

Incredible product, incredible team 🚘

Getting the best of both worlds; car finance made efficient, simple and good value. I work in a position where I fully support the product 🥳 To top it off the team I work with is impeccable. When I first arrived and read my first book from the Carmoola library ‘No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention’, I quickly saw the similarities within our business. I won’t lie, the talk about hiring amazing talent density definitely fed my imposter syndrome, but I’ve quickly found my contributions here are recognised and valued.  

Getting things done is easier in a small team 👫

We are a start-up and have a small team. I have worked in both big and smaller teams and I would pick a smaller team every time. Working in a smaller team is just easier to get things done! At Carmoola we have a resilient team, we work hard and we play hard. We live up to a core value: don’t be a d*ckhead. Being in a smaller team has meant, since we have a good relationship with everyone, we can easily call out people for being rude, obstructive or anti social. What goes hand in hand with this is feedback, we let each other know if they have done a good job or if they need to improve on something.

It’s OK not to know everything right now ✅

Just before I joined Carmoola I was told to give myself 6 months before I would feel like I really knew everything. This was a tough one to come to terms with, and I reckon this will be one of the biggest challenges for me – accepting that it may take time for me to become a Carmoola expert. I’d like to think I am on the right track though, don’t worry. 

It’s not always what you know, sometimes it's who you know. Week 1, and I needed to make an urgent hire. Who should come to the rescue? Kev, a customer hero I’d worked with previously. He started 3 days later 😅

With a few weeks under my belt, I’m feeling much more settled. I’ve nailed the commute (discovering the secret shortcut in Euston station) and finally got used to my MacBook, with no help 🥳

My dog Rusty, the latest member of the office dog gang, even made it into a CRM campaign, and now I have my very own office Love Island water bottle, I genuinely feel a part of the inner circle. More importantly, working for a business with impressive long term goals, along with incredible growth achievements so far is super exciting and I can’t wait to contribute even more to Carmoola.

Watch this space for an update: The Truth About My First Year at Carmoola.