Collaboration and Care are Central to Eliot Choi’s Leadership

“I really enjoy our people and culture, and they make me proud to work here,” says Eliot Choi. As the strategic technical advisor for the technology team, Choi helps Audible make the best possible tech decisions on behalf of our customers worldwide, while also being known as a dedicated volunteer and caring leader. He is part of the employee-led impact group Asians@Audible, which fosters support, inclusion and networking for our ANHPI community; has led mentorship events at our Newark hub with Girls Who Code, working with high school students interested in engineering careers; and later this year will host a discussion panel at Newark’s Urban League Tech House about the many possible careers in tech, and how to get started.

Choi finds great meaning in working for a company that, while revolutionizing audio entertainment and growing a global audience, prioritizes a culture driven by our People Principle of “Activate Caring.” His love of people is evident in the way he connects with teams across the company in his responsibilities of tech strategy and operational planning, processes and tools.

Here he shares what he’s learned about leadership and how it feels to work in a culture of caring.

What is something you believe is essential to succeeding as a leader?

Some of the best career advice I’ve ever received is: if you want to be at the next level, act like you are at the next level, and the results will come. That stuck with me and I took it to heart. Whether I was looking to move into a bigger role, move laterally into a new area, or take on a new project, I always thought about how I needed to think and act in that new position, and what I needed to learn in order to be successful.

I have held various roles in my career (software development engineer, software development manager, quality assurance manager, technical program manager, and so on) and I’d like to think that going into each with that mindset helped me put myself in the best possible position to help my team and achieve the desired results.

What do you like best about your work?

Our people and our culture at Audible. We get to solve customer, business and technical problems at scale and work with Amazon partners, which I really enjoy. And of course, I love our product and its meaningful impact. I remember a customer care team member relaying this story about a customer who told them her daughter was, sadly, terminally ill and blind and bedridden in the hospital, and that Audible gave her a way to escape that tragic reality, giving her joy.

In addition, Audible’s People Principles, and my coworkers who embody them, are what really draw me here every day. They’re what I like best. Audible’s work in our communities, such as Newark Working Kitchens, which launched during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, are examples of how our company and employees look to make a positive impact in the cities we are in.

Our culture of “Activate Caring” also shows in the way we treat each other as colleagues during meetings and projects, and in the way we solve problems together. We spend a majority of our waking moments at our jobs, and I can honestly say that I really love working with my amazing teammates. And the role I play in the impact we make on our communities and customers means a lot to me.

What is something you’ve accomplished while being a leader at Audible that you are particularly proud of?

In 2018, I had the opportunity to manage the migration of our Audible systems to a new set of databases. It was a challenging project to manage operationally and technically, and I had the pleasure of working across many teams at Audible and Amazon, meeting new people and learning so much along the way. Thanks to the hard work and awesome solutions the teams came up with, we had a successful migration, achieving results that I am very proud of to this date.

Lightning round

• Coffee or tea? Coffee. I’m really getting into making my own cortados at home.
• Morning person or night owl? Morning.
• Where are you working from currently? In our amazing Newark, NJ hub.
• How long have you been with Audible? Eight and a half years.
• Dine in or take out? Dine in.
• Favorite outside of work hobby? My hobbies generally revolve around spending time with my family, such as my watching my kids’ ice hockey games, and music, sports and cooking, but most recently I’ve been training for the NYC Marathon in November.
• Favorite Audible listen, go. Project Hail Mary is my favorite of all time.