Today I’d like to share some experiences we had during the Junior Innovator Camp that was part of the Wonder Women Tech conference earlier this summer. I was joined by my colleagues Marjorie Asturias (who also spoke), Sarah Blackstock, Erica Varlese, and Anne McCarthy.

Wonder Women Tech, where Automattic was a sponsor, is a conference that highlights women in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math), and provides a forum for discussing important topics around diversity. The two-day event drew over 150 speakers, all of whom were successful entrepreneurs or business leaders, who shared their triumphs, failings, and learned lessons. The conference offered educational opportunities to a number of area students who were attending on scholarships.

My colleagues and I presented a half-day workshop on “WordPress for the Beginning Entrepreneur” as part of the Junior Innovator Camp aimed at young adults aged 13-17. First up we taught the students how to create websites using WordPress.com, including how to customize the look and feel of a site. After that we walked them through a hands-on branding exercise that explored how to come up with a product or service, how to make your business unique, and what types of people your business would appeal to. We rounded the whole thing out with a crash course in marketing before the students shared their businesses with us.

Twenty-one students (and their parents) attended this event. Students worked in groups for the workshop, but I was pleased to see the adults following along on their own as well. It’s never a bad day when you can share your knowledge with someone, and this day was no different. Our students were wonderful and enthusiastic. We ended up with a lot of great business ideas and even a few opportunities to talk about future career paths for these young innovators.

I’m grateful to the organizers of Wonder Women Tech who gathered and encouraged such a wonderful group of students. I left feeling reminded of all the ways that technology allows us to be creative, share our unique experiences, and build a future we can all be proud of. Wanting to be part of something big? We’re always hiring!

Filed under: Community, Events

Today I’d like to share some experiences we had during the Junior Innovator Camp that was part of the Wonder Women Tech conference earlier this summer. I was joined by my colleagues Marjorie Asturias (who also spoke), Sarah Blackstock, Erica Varlese, and Anne McCarthy.

Wonder Women Tech, where Automattic was a sponsor, is a conference that highlights women in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math), and provides a forum for discussing important topics around diversity. The two-day event drew over 150 speakers, all of whom were successful entrepreneurs or business leaders, who shared their triumphs, failings, and learned lessons. The conference offered educational opportunities to a number of area students who were attending on scholarships.

My colleagues and I presented a half-day workshop on “WordPress for the Beginning Entrepreneur” as part of the Junior Innovator Camp aimed at young adults aged 13-17. First up we taught the students how to create websites using WordPress.com, including how to customize the look and feel of a site. After that we walked them through a hands-on branding exercise that explored how to come up with a product or service, how to make your business unique, and what types of people your business would appeal to. We rounded the whole thing out with a crash course in marketing before the students shared their businesses with us.

Twenty-one students (and their parents) attended this event. Students worked in groups for the workshop, but I was pleased to see the adults following along on their own as well. It’s never a bad day when you can share your knowledge with someone, and this day was no different. Our students were wonderful and enthusiastic. We ended up with a lot of great business ideas and even a few opportunities to talk about future career paths for these young innovators.

I’m grateful to the organizers of Wonder Women Tech who gathered and encouraged such a wonderful group of students. I left feeling reminded of all the ways that technology allows us to be creative, share our unique experiences, and build a future we can all be proud of. Wanting to be part of something big? We’re always hiring!

Filed under: Community, Events

Today I’d like to share some experiences we had during the Junior Innovator Camp that was part of the Wonder Women Tech conference earlier this summer. I was joined by my colleagues Marjorie Asturias (who also spoke), Sarah Blackstock, Erica Varlese, and Anne McCarthy.

Wonder Women Tech, where Automattic was a sponsor, is a conference that highlights women in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math), and provides a forum for discussing important topics around diversity. The two-day event drew over 150 speakers, all of whom were successful entrepreneurs or business leaders, who shared their triumphs, failings, and learned lessons. The conference offered educational opportunities to a number of area students who were attending on scholarships.

My colleagues and I presented a half-day workshop on “WordPress for the Beginning Entrepreneur” as part of the Junior Innovator Camp aimed at young adults aged 13-17. First up we taught the students how to create websites using WordPress.com, including how to customize the look and feel of a site. After that we walked them through a hands-on branding exercise that explored how to come up with a product or service, how to make your business unique, and what types of people your business would appeal to. We rounded the whole thing out with a crash course in marketing before the students shared their businesses with us.

Twenty-one students (and their parents) attended this event. Students worked in groups for the workshop, but I was pleased to see the adults following along on their own as well. It’s never a bad day when you can share your knowledge with someone, and this day was no different. Our students were wonderful and enthusiastic. We ended up with a lot of great business ideas and even a few opportunities to talk about future career paths for these young innovators.

I’m grateful to the organizers of Wonder Women Tech who gathered and encouraged such a wonderful group of students. I left feeling reminded of all the ways that technology allows us to be creative, share our unique experiences, and build a future we can all be proud of. Wanting to be part of something big? We’re always hiring!

Filed under: Community, Events

Today I’d like to share some experiences we had during the Junior Innovator Camp that was part of the Wonder Women Tech conference earlier this summer. I was joined by my colleagues Marjorie Asturias (who also spoke), Sarah Blackstock, Erica Varlese, and Anne McCarthy.

Wonder Women Tech, where Automattic was a sponsor, is a conference that highlights women in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math), and provides a forum for discussing important topics around diversity. The two-day event drew over 150 speakers, all of whom were successful entrepreneurs or business leaders, who shared their triumphs, failings, and learned lessons. The conference offered educational opportunities to a number of area students who were attending on scholarships.

My colleagues and I presented a half-day workshop on “WordPress for the Beginning Entrepreneur” as part of the Junior Innovator Camp aimed at young adults aged 13-17. First up we taught the students how to create websites using WordPress.com, including how to customize the look and feel of a site. After that we walked them through a hands-on branding exercise that explored how to come up with a product or service, how to make your business unique, and what types of people your business would appeal to. We rounded the whole thing out with a crash course in marketing before the students shared their businesses with us.

Twenty-one students (and their parents) attended this event. Students worked in groups for the workshop, but I was pleased to see the adults following along on their own as well. It’s never a bad day when you can share your knowledge with someone, and this day was no different. Our students were wonderful and enthusiastic. We ended up with a lot of great business ideas and even a few opportunities to talk about future career paths for these young innovators.

I’m grateful to the organizers of Wonder Women Tech who gathered and encouraged such a wonderful group of students. I left feeling reminded of all the ways that technology allows us to be creative, share our unique experiences, and build a future we can all be proud of. Wanting to be part of something big? We’re always hiring!

Filed under: Community, Events

Karen, Deborah, Erica, and Pam will be in Argentina, Spain, and Austria in May and June to encourage Spanish-speaking people to apply to work with us at Automattic.

Where will you be and when?

We’ll be doing several events in Argentina, Spain, and Austria in May and June 2016. We’re particularly excited about visiting local WordPress communities and meetup groups and speaking at WordCamp Europe at the end of June.

If you’re in Argentina or Spain, come find us to chat at one of the events below:

Argentina (Buenos Aires, La Plata, Córdoba)
Monday, May 9th at 6:30pm

• Buenos Aires WordPress meetup group
• DaVinci (Buenos Aires)

Tuesday, May 10th at 6pm

• WordPress Happy Hour and Networking
• Sugar (Buenos Aires)

Wednesday, May 11th at 7pm

• La Plata WordPress meetup group Globant (La Plata)

Thursday, May 12th at 6:30pm

• Córdoba WordPress meetup group
• TechPub (Córdoba)

Europe (Barcelona, Madrid, and Vienna)
Friday, June 17th

• WooCommerce Barcelona meetup group Location and time TBD (Barcelona)

Saturday, June 18th at 11:30am

• Barcelona WordPress meetup group Location TBD (Barcelona)

Tuesday, June 21st at 6:30pm

• Madrid WordPress meetup group
• Campus Madrid

Friday June 24th to Sunday, June 26th

• WordCamp Europe
• MuseumsQuartier (Vienna)

What’s the purpose of the trip?

Part of our mission to democratize publishing means making our tools and services accessible to people all over the world. While the entire Automattic family works remotely — which means we’re located all over the world — we still primarily provide support via English.

We want to help users in their first language. While there are many wonderful tools online to help with translation, nothing beats the feeling of opening a chat box for help and being greeted with someone who can help you in the language you speak every day. We’ve been able to provide localized support for our Brazilian Portuguese-speaking users, and we’d like to expand that to our Spanish-speaking users as well.

To localize support, we need Happiness Engineers that speak Spanish. Our goal with this trip is to meet and connect with the amazing, Spanish-speaking WordPress communities across the globe and, hopefully, entice a few folks to join the Automattic family.

What are you looking for in applicants?

Happiness Engineers are passionate about good support. It helps to have a working knowledge of WordPress, WooCommerce, Jetpack, and the family of Automattic products, but you can also increase your skills on the job.

We spend our days helping Automattic/WordPress.com customers who have a wide range of experience. In a single day, you can chat with someone who’s just starting their first blog to someone who’s been developing websites for a decade. Regardless of who you’re talking with, a successful Happiness Engineer is patient, has a good sense of humor, and is ready to take technical language and make it easy to understand.

We love to see applicants who already spend their time in the WordPress community or online support forums. While technical knowledge is important for success in this role, it’s the added touch of seeking out a way to provide cheerful, honest, personalized support that makes all the difference.

What’s the best way for applicants to get in touch with you?

For questions, feel free to comment on this post and we’d be glad to reply. Otherwise, you can apply for the position via the Work With Us page, following the steps listed at the bottom of the job description. See you soon!

Filed under: Community, Hiring, International