‘I Love My Job’: A Team of Collaborative Tinkerers Who Are Free to Explore and Innovate

Welcome to I Love My Job, the series where we hear from women who really love their jobs. In this edition, we sat down with Emily Mosbacher, the Director of Programming on the marketing team at Philo.

Mosbacher’s eight-year career at Philo began when she was an intern in college — and she hasn’t stopped growing since! “I feel like Philo and I have grown up together,” she tells us. During this time, Mosbacher has been at the forefront of many of Philo’s innovative moments. For instance, she fielded their first phone call from a subscriber on their direct-to-consumer product, which Philo launched in 2017.

From marketing and PR to support and business development— Mosbacher has also experienced all parts of the Philo team during her tenure at the company. “I often quip that the only team I haven't worked on is the engineering team,” she says. And, today, Mosbacher is giving us an inside look at what working at Philo is really like.

In the video below, Mosbacher shares more about why she loves working at Philo. We also provide lightly edited highlights from the video discussion in the following article.

In case you have trouble watching this video, please click here to watch it on YouTube.

What do you find most exciting about working at Philo?

In short, I love being able to work in TV.

I received some advice that I will never forget at the outset of my career when I was, to be frank, applying for a lot of jobs that I wasn't interested in. I assumed everyone was doing the same thing; however, I got the advice to look inward and ask myself what I actually like to do all day. And I blurted out, “I love to watch TV. But what can I do with that?”

I feel so lucky to be able to build my professional life around television and storytelling and to spend my days doing what I really love.

How would you describe the culture of Philo?

I would describe the culture of Philo as collaborative. We often talk about and refer to ourselves internally as tinkerers, which is a value that we all share. We recently established a structure of what we call goal-based teams, where we ostensibly connect people across design, marketing, product, engineering, and every team at Philo to ensure that we are working toward our goals from an across-team and collaborative place. We try to not take ourselves too seriously and let ourselves be free to explore.

One of my favorite things about Philo is that good ideas can come from anywhere. If you have a thought, an idea, an improvement, or a problem, we expect you to speak to that and to raise it to the relevant group. The collaboration that this sets up and the inclusivity this fosters is one of really the core tenants of the culture at Philo that I've come to love so much.

What’s your favorite thing about Philo?

There are really two things: 

1. There are the people, which is always my answer to that question up front. It's the people who have brought me here and who have kept me here for eight years and counting. 

2. The innovation. I started at Philo when we had twenty-something people who worked here — we are more than four times that size now. It has been so exciting and encouraging to see that growth throughout the many changes a company goes through as they get bigger and mature. We've been able to really preserve our startup nature and innovation, and we know that a good idea can come from anywhere. We're all encouraged to really work together [...] across the board.

How does Philo support you?

I have been lucky to collect a roster of mentors during my time at Philo. These are people who I look up to and both support me and — more importantly — push me to show up as the best version of myself every day.

I have been at Philo a long time, and it has felt even more critical as time has gone on to stay curious about not only what the best version of myself is today [...] but also challenge myself on how I can improve that on a daily basis… The level of support from my peers as well is something that has kept me at Philo.

What advice would you give to other women looking to work at Philo?

When it comes to working in tech, it can be intimidating — especially for women who want to break into this industry.  I feel very lucky that, at Philo, we have made and are continuing to make diversity a focus in terms of our recruitment strategy, especially in departments where representation is needed. This is a male-dominated industry; however, we do really value a diverse set of voices in every room possible.

One piece of advice that I have is to make yourself visible to our hiring teams: whether that be taking the leap and applying to our open opportunities, ensuring your socials highlight your expertise, or not neglecting LinkedIn. Finally, interact with our recruiters as they do have a lot of experience and they are always on LinkedIn and open for a conversation. Even if there isn't an open role that feels like a good fit for you right now, we really like to keep people who are interested in Philo in mind. 

Fairygodboss is proud to work with Philo. Find a job there today!

Check out other posts in the ‘I Love My Job’ series:

• ‘I Love My Job’: The ‘Tremendous Amount of Growth and Opportunities’ That Helped Me Become a VP

• ‘I Love My Job’: Collaborative People, Engaging Customers, and The Support You Need To Grow

• ‘I Love My Job’: Authentic Relationships, Fun Work, and Growing the Next Generation of Women Leaders

• ‘I Love My Job’: Achieving Growth ‘Beyond My Imagination’ Thanks to the Support of My Global Company

• ‘I Love My Job’: A ‘Winning Culture’ Where We Win Together as a Supportive and Flexible Team