Andrew Hawkins, Technology Director at Compare the Market: How to Launch Your Career in Tech in 2026
My Duvet Flip by Jack Parsons
Jack Parsons
4.2 • 8 Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode Guest
Andrew Hawkins is Technology Director at Compare the Market, where he focuses on building world-class engineering capability and helping teams embrace AI-led transformation. He is known for his thoughtful, people-first approach to leadership, with a strong emphasis on curiosity, impact and continuous learning.
Episode Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:22 Andrew’s first job and early career lessons
2:14 Taking risks and stepping into the unknown
3:40 The failure that changed Andrew’s career
4:39 Failure is framing: a powerful mindset shift
5:34 Using failure to build resilience and confidence
6:06 Curiosity, open-mindedness and career growth
7:22 How to become more curious in your career
8:17 Dropping fear and leaning into new opportunities
9:20 Why AI feels like the early internet
10:04 How to think about AI in business and problem-solving
11:02 Why AI won’t replace engineers
12:27 Andrew’s non-linear career journey
13:09 Do what makes you happy and plays to your strengths
14:11 Why traditional career advice is broken
15:03 Transferable skills from unexpected jobs
15:37 Why having fun at work matters
16:31 Handling periods when you don’t enjoy your job
17:14 Self-awareness and taking responsibility for change
18:10 When to adapt vs when to move on
19:05 How Andrew joined Compare the Market
20:07 The role of AI in business transformation
21:04 Why company values matter when choosing a job
22:46 Top interview tips to stand out
24:07 Building rapport and being yourself in interviews
26:15 The best question to ask in a tech interview
27:34 How companies should approach AI transformation
29:20 Becoming a world-class engineering organisation
30:19 Why now is the most exciting time in tech
31:38 Lessons from the early internet boom
32:32 Will AI replace human conversations?
32:50 What keeps Andrew motivated at Compare the Market
34:11 Why technology is all about people
34:44 The best career advice Andrew follows
36:12 Andrew’s duvet flip: making an impact every day
37:05 Final thoughts and reflections
Episode Partners
📊 Compare the Market
Discover how you can make a difference at Compare the Market, the company behind one of the UK’s most popular comparison sites. From tech and data to marketing and operations, they’re on a mission to simplify decisions for millions.
https://bit.ly/4i53Svj
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Failure is framing. If you look at the situation, you go, that was a failure and now I'm going to layer on all the things that come with failure, it's going to hold you back. You've summed that up so nice. Failure is framing. I'm going to use that. Hello, my name's Andrew Hawkins. I'm the technology director at Compaed Market. We employ 800 people across the UK and France. And this is my duvet flip. Tell me a little bit about your first job. What was it? |
| 0:24.3 | Straight out of university. We employ 800 people across the UK and France. And this is my duvet flip. |
| 0:22.1 | Tell me a little bit about your first job. What was it? |
| 0:24.2 | Straight out of university at Cafe Internet. |
| 0:26.0 | The web was just emerging. |
| 0:27.9 | It taught me about the world of work. |
| 0:29.6 | Take a risk, be open-minded, stay curious. |
| 0:32.7 | Did you know then that you wanted to get into engineering? |
| 0:36.1 | No, I had no clue. |
| 0:37.2 | The actual story is doing what interests you, doing what puts a smile on your face, and doing |
| 0:44.4 | what your strengths play to so that you're going to do a good job. |
| 0:48.9 | You talk so much sense because it is what makes you happy. |
| 0:52.5 | It's what you're curious about. |
| 0:54.0 | It's having an open mind. |
| 0:55.1 | When I joined Cafe Internet, the Internet was responsible for 0.003% of GDP. |
| 1:01.6 | And now there isn't a business today that doesn't depend on it absolutely to succeed. |
| 1:07.0 | Even there is going to be a time where you can send your AI agent and I can send my agent to have this interview? Do you know what? I hope not. Wouldn't that be a shame? That would, wouldn't it? Yeah. What's your duvet flip? What gets you out of bed in the morning to flip the duvet? My duvet flip is... Hello, my name's Andrew Hawkins. I'm the technology director at Compare the Market. I'm most excited today to talk about the role that AI is going to play |
| 1:28.7 | in software engineering in the future as a career. Jack as a host and the show in general, |
| 1:33.4 | huge impact. Love it. I watch it. I get advice from it. Fantastic. The one thing I hope people |
| 1:40.0 | get from this episode is work hard, have fun, do what puts a smile on your face, and you'll be |
| 1:45.2 | all right. |
| 1:50.1 | Hi Jack, let's do this. |
... |
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