One year ago today, I was working night security/gate at the Eastern Traditional Archery Rendezvous when I received an email that changed my life.
It said:
I work on the Happiness team at Automattic and would like to chat
about your recent Happiness Engineer application.Are you free on Friday, July 25th, 8:30am Eastern time to have a text
chat on Skype?
I had applied months before and by that point had figured it wasn’t my time yet. I’d wait another year and try again. Instead, that email led to an interview, a project, another interview, a trial, and the best job on the planet.
The past year has been a blur, and I’ve learned a ton.
I love how it’s my job to interact with people who use WordPress.
When I work in live chat, I instant message with people who are learning about their sites. When I work on mobile, I get to text to people who use our app. I’m currently working with the Jetpack plugin and learning all sorts of things about network connections, third party plugin integrations and the powerful options we offer people from spam guards to beautiful galleries to math notations.
And then there’s one of my favorite parts of my job. Working in Blogging University. While I know I’m actually in there to help others, the truth is that I go there for inspiration myself. Each class holds community members who learn together and build friendships. It’s beautiful to be part of this.
I get to travel. I get to meet new people online every day. I now have friends all around the world (as a distributed company we all work from home but interact enough online to become close friends). I get to celebrate the triumphs of WordPress. I learn about struggles people have with WordPress and become part of a solution. People with a thirst for knowledge surround me constantly, and I can set my own hours so I can be with my family.
Who can ask for more? I am truly thankful.
You can read more about my job application process here if you are interested.
Here’s to many more years!
16 responses to “An Email That Changed my Life”
I love this and am very glad we get to work together. That picture though ugg 🙂
What’s with our smiles? It’s okay small, but larger? Not so good. I will look for a new pic. 🙂
There. I fixed it 🙂
You were so happily helpful when I was struggling to get my blog in order. If I had one descriptive word to apply to you, it would be Sunshine.
Awww, thank you!!!!
That’s the first picture of Sam I’ve seen without bunny ears! V
🙂
Yay!!!
Thank you for all your help! It does sound like a dream job, I’m very interested in it actually. 😃
If you think it’s a good fit for you, go for it! If you don’t get through the first time, you can always try again 🙂
I’ll try, I know I have to read the book they suggested as well.
Thank you
so glad you made it! thanks for all the help 🙂
Chrissie! I *definitely* plan to read about your job application process in detail – although I’m sure it will resemble that of my daughter! 😀 I understand you helped with a problem I was having with WP on my iPhone. Guess what! I rebooted the phone and then all was fine!! I felt very sheepish; after all, I should’ve done that in the first place!! BTW, my own blog just celebrated its One-Month birthday, and I’m sooooo excited about it. Here is what I emailed to my daughter (and my son – another techie):
If ever WordPress needs a testimonial (!) from a newbie blogger, I’m their lady!
In exactly one month, I went from having:
0 blog posts
0 followers
0 views
0 visits
0 likes
0 comments
from 0 countries
to:
17 posts
20 followers
2328 views
1433 visitors
44 likes
46 comments
from **23** countries
—-
That was yesterday! Today we can add two more countries and another 240 views so far… and it’s only 10 a.m.! 😀
Hope to chat one day!
xox
Ellie
That’s all great news! Congrats on your blog. I enjoy following it!
Love your posts and how much you love working for WordPress. I forwarded this on to my son who loves coding. Thanks!
Oh that’s great! Glad it was helpful. This job is amazing. My best to your son.