I’d say my journey into Automattic was nothing short of a Miracle.
I had a short opportunity to contract with Automattic in early September 2020. It was just to help out with some ticket overflow or more like taking care of the easy issues and escalating the difficult ones to the Happiness Engineers.
At the end of my contract, it happened that Automattic was hiring. When I first saw the notice in the slack channel, I asked myself if I was good enough. Automattic does require a high level of performance from you. It meant that if you wanted to succeed at Automattic, you must be willing to give it your all. There are no half measures here.
Fast forward to the 1st of March 2020, which was my first day as a full-time Happiness Engineer. I am still excited at the opportunity of joining such an awesome group of people.
As I woke up that day, I reflected on how long it had taken me to get here. For most who might not understand where I am going with this, here is why this is so exciting for me. After my first opportunity working remotely in 2015, when the concept was literally alien from my part of the world, very few people understood why I didn’t want to go back to a traditional office. For me, I saw a world with no boundaries, a world where I am not limited by my geographical space; it was an experience that changed my entire perspective.
When my first remote stint ended in 2016, friends and families would send me job adverts for roles in a traditional office, but I was having none of it. I have been there done that, and I would rather remain unemployed than continue my regular 9 – 5. I would always answer yes when they asked me if I had applied when in reality, I never even looked at the job description. The location was the buzz killer. I couldn’t imagine myself tied to a specific location and limited opportunities.
That was the easy part; the hard part became getting a new opportunity. That was when I first came across Automattic. I read lots of posts about the process and what an awesome company Automattic was that I was already in awe; I mean, who wouldn’t be? So, I dusted my resume and wrote a long application to Matt on why I wanted to join Automattic. Back then, I read that Matt personally reviewed all the CV himself, so I thought, why not. I am sure if emotion was the only criteria needed to work here, I would have been shortlisted. Funny enough, up until that time, my only experience with WordPress was a crash course by my colleague at my first remote company and a personal website built on the self-hosted platform.
It wasn’t really a shock when I was rejected because, come to think of it, I was basically a greenhorn in the Technical Support space and literally had very little knowledge of WordPress. I was disappointed but definitely not depressed. I had to move on, and since the perfect opportunity had passed, I pursued other ones. I would later join Upwork and work with several companies delivering Technical Support. I have always loved helping people, and the satisfaction you get when you see someone smile was one reason I stayed back in the field.
It was like every other day when I got an email notification from Upwork inviting me to interview for a 3 months project. I accepted the invite and would later find out I was to work with Automattic. What? Same Automattic or a subsidiary? I was beside myself with joy. From the first day I was introduced via P2 to joining the slack channel, I kept telling myself I was gonna end up as an Happiness Engineer. I didn’t know how, but I knew I wanted this. However when the first announcement to interview came, I chickened out. I told myself I needed more time, I said to myself, you only got one chance at this, wait for the next opportunity. Maybe after 6 months, maybe after this or that. Well, I enjoyed myself so much working as an HC that I forgot how time went by so fast. Alas it was the end of my contract. 😩 and reality set in. One glimmer of hope I had was in the team willingness to still work with me if more work became a available. So with nothing else to loose and no excuse to hold on to, I went to the site and that nifty side bar said “Seems like you’ve visited this page a lot of times, “Apply already”
That was it. I had a long chat with my mum, and decided I had nothing to loose and sent in my application. I realized that if I kept waiting till I was a WordPress guru, then I’ll never apply. With what I had experienced as an HC, I knew this was a company I definitely wanted to work for. When I first got the the response from the hiring team that they would love to move forward with my application, I really started seeing possibilities and like they say, the rest is history.
I wouldn’t go into detail about the hiring process, some of my colleagues have already written about it here and here.
What I can tell you is that if this is where you want to be, then apply already! Come join an awesome bunch of people helping to democratize publishing and making the web a better place.
One of the things which makes me believe that this is where I am meant to be is that, they truly do live by the Automattic creed. Which for me aligns to my personal creed. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Everyone is incredibly supportive of each other, and with a team like this, the sky is just the starting point.
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