Me. It’s obvious that a lot can change in 10 years; insolvency rules and regulations move on, technology becomes more prominent in everyday matters and Covid-19 changed the working world forever. But, nothing has changed more over the last 10 years, than me.
I’m Joe Carroll, one of the senior administrators at BRI. I joined BRI as a young man with little adult life experience and the damning realisation that I wasn’t going to become a professional footballer (something I’m still coming to terms with, after my third knee surgery!). At some point, that job then becomes a career and I’m grateful to those at BRI who supported me in finding mine.
Although working from home is the norm now (and saves the hour commute either side of the day), the office is a great place to realise how you can be the odd one out for not owning an oven, or how people actually choose to watch reality TV, soaps and films over sport!? It’s something that I’ve learnt to accept, but if there is any opportunity to direct a conversation towards football, then let’s do it.
Problem solving is a key component when assisting and advising on insolvency matters in an industry where solutions can tend to be subjective. In 10 years, the one problem I haven’t yet perfected in solving is booking my annual leave before it runs out! In fact, with the deadline approaching this March, I spontaneously booked a one way train ticket into Europe on the Friday afternoon – to leave on Saturday morning. With no plan, and nothing booked, I solo backpacked my way through Europe only making decisions on where I was going, where I was staying and what I was doing when the moment arose. Simple.
BRI has played a large part in educating me from a young man to a, slightly older, young man and has provided me with a skillset to compliment my calm and easy-going personality which allows me to be adaptable and efficient during fast moving environments, making me equipped to deal with high pressure situations that regularly arise. “Pressure? What pressure? Pressure is for tyres!” – Alan Shearer, July 2024 (although not directly said about me).
When Tom initially asked me to write about my last 10 years at BRI and whether the number 10 had any significance to me, all I could think about was Charles N’Zogbia’s 94th minute winner in 2011 to relegate West Ham and keep us up – and that is probably the firmest indication of how my brain works. However, the last 10 years of Wigan Athletic, whilst more suited towards a Netflix documentary, have certainly not been as enriching as my last 10 years at BRI.
