Today, we’re happy to share that the next edition of the Learn User Support Workshop will launch on August 19, 2019. The course is entirely web-based — there’s no need to travel anywhere to attend — and completely free. So if you identify as a woman, are based in the Asia-Pacific region, and are serious about a career in user support, this might be a perfect match for you.

Building a better, bigger workshop

The strong positive feedback we received from our students earlier this year, as well as the increasingly long waitlist, inspired us to improve the course content and to design it to accommodate more learners. 

What topics will we cover? As a participant, expect to learn how to…

• Develop your own support philosophy.
• Build successful troubleshooting strategies.
• Manage challenging interactions.
• Implement productivity tools.
• Optimize your approach to applying and interviewing for jobs in support.

This six-module course will start on August 19 and will run through September 29. We will publish a new module every Monday, and each learner will have one week to complete it. We’ll include lots of hands-on work, and by the end of the course, each participant will also develop a résumé and portfolio site on WordPress that they can then share with potential employers.

Meet your friendly organizers

As for your teachers, the people who lead this workshop are Automattic Happiness Engineers — master communicators with deep, wide-ranging experience in distributed technical support. 

Automattic, which offers the workshop, is a fully-distributed company — there are more than 930 full-time Automatticians spread across 70 countries and speaking 88 languages. We serve users from every corner of the world via products like WordPress.com, Jetpack, and WooCommerce, among others. 

As people who believe in the benefits of distributed work, we love helping remote professionals level up their skills. Our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion leads us to look for ways to make the tech sector more representative of the wide and varied world it serves. As a result, this virtual workshop will equip Asia-Pacific-based women who are — or want to become — support professionals with skills that are specifically tailored to the demands of remote work.  

Are you ready to sign up? Just click below:

We are currently accepting only women for this cohort.

SIGN UP NOW!

We have 40 slots for this cohort on a first come, first serve basis.

We will get in touch with you via email if you are selected for the course. If you know anyone who might be a good fit, feel free to share this post with them!

If you are not selected for this edition of the course, you can always sign up to receive updates on future courses.

CLICK HERE TO GET NOTIFIED!

Today, we’re happy to share that the next edition of the Learn User Support Workshop will launch on August 19, 2019. The course is entirely web-based — there’s no need to travel anywhere to attend — and completely free. So if you identify as a woman, are based in the Asia-Pacific region, and are serious about a career in user support, this might be a perfect match for you.

Building a better, bigger workshop

The strong positive feedback we received from our students earlier this year, as well as the increasingly long waitlist, inspired us to improve the course content and to design it to accommodate more learners. 

What topics will we cover? As a participant, expect to learn how to…

• Develop your own support philosophy.
• Build successful troubleshooting strategies.
• Manage challenging interactions.
• Implement productivity tools.
• Optimize your approach to applying and interviewing for jobs in support.

This six-module course will start on August 19 and will run through September 29. We will publish a new module every Monday, and each learner will have one week to complete it. We’ll include lots of hands-on work, and by the end of the course, each participant will also develop a résumé and portfolio site on WordPress that they can then share with potential employers.

Meet your friendly organizers

As for your teachers, the people who lead this workshop are Automattic Happiness Engineers — master communicators with deep, wide-ranging experience in distributed technical support. 

Automattic, which offers the workshop, is a fully-distributed company — there are more than 930 full-time Automatticians spread across 70 countries and speaking 88 languages. We serve users from every corner of the world via products like WordPress.com, Jetpack, and WooCommerce, among others. 

As people who believe in the benefits of distributed work, we love helping remote professionals level up their skills. Our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion leads us to look for ways to make the tech sector more representative of the wide and varied world it serves. As a result, this virtual workshop will equip Asia-Pacific-based women who are — or want to become — support professionals with skills that are specifically tailored to the demands of remote work.  

Are you ready to sign up? Just click below:

We are currently accepting only women for this cohort.

SIGN UP NOW!

We have 40 slots for this cohort on a first come, first serve basis.

We will get in touch with you via email if you are selected for the course. If you know anyone who might be a good fit, feel free to share this post with them!

If you are not selected for this edition of the course, you can always sign up to receive updates on future courses.

CLICK HERE TO GET NOTIFIED!

Today, we’re happy to share that the next edition of the Learn User Support Workshop will launch on August 19, 2019. The course is entirely web-based — there’s no need to travel anywhere to attend — and completely free. So if you identify as a woman, are based in the Asia-Pacific region, and are serious about a career in user support, this might be a perfect match for you.

Building a better, bigger workshop

The strong positive feedback we received from our students earlier this year, as well as the increasingly long waitlist, inspired us to improve the course content and to design it to accommodate more learners. 

What topics will we cover? As a participant, expect to learn how to…

• Develop your own support philosophy.
• Build successful troubleshooting strategies.
• Manage challenging interactions.
• Implement productivity tools.
• Optimize your approach to applying and interviewing for jobs in support.

This six-module course will start on August 19 and will run through September 29. We will publish a new module every Monday, and each learner will have one week to complete it. We’ll include lots of hands-on work, and by the end of the course, each participant will also develop a résumé and portfolio site on WordPress that they can then share with potential employers.

Meet your friendly organizers

As for your teachers, the people who lead this workshop are Automattic Happiness Engineers — master communicators with deep, wide-ranging experience in distributed technical support. 

Automattic, which offers the workshop, is a fully-distributed company — there are more than 930 full-time Automatticians spread across 70 countries and speaking 88 languages. We serve users from every corner of the world via products like WordPress.com, Jetpack, and WooCommerce, among others. 

As people who believe in the benefits of distributed work, we love helping remote professionals level up their skills. Our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion leads us to look for ways to make the tech sector more representative of the wide and varied world it serves. As a result, this virtual workshop will equip Asia-Pacific-based women who are — or want to become — support professionals with skills that are specifically tailored to the demands of remote work.  

Are you ready to sign up? Just click below:

We are currently accepting only women for this cohort.

SIGN UP NOW!

We have 40 slots for this cohort on a first come, first serve basis.

We will get in touch with you via email if you are selected for the course. If you know anyone who might be a good fit, feel free to share this post with them!

If you are not selected for this edition of the course, you can always sign up to receive updates on future courses.

CLICK HERE TO GET NOTIFIED!

Today, we’re happy to share that the next edition of the Learn User Support Workshop will launch on August 19, 2019. The course is entirely web-based — there’s no need to travel anywhere to attend — and completely free. So if you identify as a woman, are based in the Asia-Pacific region, and are serious about a career in user support, this might be a perfect match for you.

Building a better, bigger workshop

The strong positive feedback we received from our students earlier this year, as well as the increasingly long waitlist, inspired us to improve the course content and to design it to accommodate more learners. 

What topics will we cover? As a participant, expect to learn how to…

• Develop your own support philosophy.
• Build successful troubleshooting strategies.
• Manage challenging interactions.
• Implement productivity tools.
• Optimize your approach to applying and interviewing for jobs in support.

This six-module course will start on August 19 and will run through September 29. We will publish a new module every Monday, and each learner will have one week to complete it. We’ll include lots of hands-on work, and by the end of the course, each participant will also develop a résumé and portfolio site on WordPress that they can then share with potential employers.

Meet your friendly organizers

As for your teachers, the people who lead this workshop are Automattic Happiness Engineers — master communicators with deep, wide-ranging experience in distributed technical support. 

Automattic, which offers the workshop, is a fully-distributed company — there are more than 930 full-time Automatticians spread across 70 countries and speaking 88 languages. We serve users from every corner of the world via products like WordPress.com, Jetpack, and WooCommerce, among others. 

As people who believe in the benefits of distributed work, we love helping remote professionals level up their skills. Our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion leads us to look for ways to make the tech sector more representative of the wide and varied world it serves. As a result, this virtual workshop will equip Asia-Pacific-based women who are — or want to become — support professionals with skills that are specifically tailored to the demands of remote work.  

Are you ready to sign up? Just click below:

We are currently accepting only women for this cohort.

SIGN UP NOW!

We have 40 slots for this cohort on a first come, first serve basis.

We will get in touch with you via email if you are selected for the course. If you know anyone who might be a good fit, feel free to share this post with them!

If you are not selected for this edition of the course, you can always sign up to receive updates on future courses.

CLICK HERE TO GET NOTIFIED!

Today, we’re happy to share that the next edition of the Learn User Support Workshop will launch on August 19, 2019. The course is entirely web-based — there’s no need to travel anywhere to attend — and completely free. So if you identify as a woman, are based in the Asia-Pacific region, and are serious about a career in user support, this might be a perfect match for you.

Building a better, bigger workshop

The strong positive feedback we received from our students earlier this year, as well as the increasingly long waitlist, inspired us to improve the course content and to design it to accommodate more learners. 

What topics will we cover? As a participant, expect to learn how to…

• Develop your own support philosophy.
• Build successful troubleshooting strategies.
• Manage challenging interactions.
• Implement productivity tools.
• Optimize your approach to applying and interviewing for jobs in support.

This six-module course will start on August 19 and will run through September 29. We will publish a new module every Monday, and each learner will have one week to complete it. We’ll include lots of hands-on work, and by the end of the course, each participant will also develop a résumé and portfolio site on WordPress that they can then share with potential employers.

Meet your friendly organizers

As for your teachers, the people who lead this workshop are Automattic Happiness Engineers — master communicators with deep, wide-ranging experience in distributed technical support. 

Automattic, which offers the workshop, is a fully-distributed company — there are more than 930 full-time Automatticians spread across 70 countries and speaking 88 languages. We serve users from every corner of the world via products like WordPress.com, Jetpack, and WooCommerce, among others. 

As people who believe in the benefits of distributed work, we love helping remote professionals level up their skills. Our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion leads us to look for ways to make the tech sector more representative of the wide and varied world it serves. As a result, this virtual workshop will equip Asia-Pacific-based women who are — or want to become — support professionals with skills that are specifically tailored to the demands of remote work.  

Are you ready to sign up? Just click below:

We are currently accepting only women for this cohort.

SIGN UP NOW!

We have 40 slots for this cohort on a first come, first serve basis.

We will get in touch with you via email if you are selected for the course. If you know anyone who might be a good fit, feel free to share this post with them!

If you are not selected for this edition of the course, you can always sign up to receive updates on future courses.

CLICK HERE TO GET NOTIFIED!

Today, we’re happy to share that the next edition of the Learn User Support Workshop will launch on August 19, 2019. The course is entirely web-based — there’s no need to travel anywhere to attend — and completely free. So if you identify as a woman, are based in the Asia-Pacific region, and are serious about a career in user support, this might be a perfect match for you.

Building a better, bigger workshop

The strong positive feedback we received from our students earlier this year, as well as the increasingly long waitlist, inspired us to improve the course content and to design it to accommodate more learners. 

What topics will we cover? As a participant, expect to learn how to…

• Develop your own support philosophy.
• Build successful troubleshooting strategies.
• Manage challenging interactions.
• Implement productivity tools.
• Optimize your approach to applying and interviewing for jobs in support.

This six-module course will start on August 19 and will run through September 29. We will publish a new module every Monday, and each learner will have one week to complete it. We’ll include lots of hands-on work, and by the end of the course, each participant will also develop a résumé and portfolio site on WordPress that they can then share with potential employers.

Meet your friendly organizers

As for your teachers, the people who lead this workshop are Automattic Happiness Engineers — master communicators with deep, wide-ranging experience in distributed technical support. 

Automattic, which offers the workshop, is a fully-distributed company — there are more than 930 full-time Automatticians spread across 70 countries and speaking 88 languages. We serve users from every corner of the world via products like WordPress.com, Jetpack, and WooCommerce, among others. 

As people who believe in the benefits of distributed work, we love helping remote professionals level up their skills. Our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion leads us to look for ways to make the tech sector more representative of the wide and varied world it serves. As a result, this virtual workshop will equip Asia-Pacific-based women who are — or want to become — support professionals with skills that are specifically tailored to the demands of remote work.  

Are you ready to sign up? Just click below:

We are currently accepting only women for this cohort.

SIGN UP NOW!

We have 40 slots for this cohort on a first come, first serve basis.

We will get in touch with you via email if you are selected for the course. If you know anyone who might be a good fit, feel free to share this post with them!

If you are not selected for this edition of the course, you can always sign up to receive updates on future courses.

CLICK HERE TO GET NOTIFIED!

Today, we’re happy to share that the next edition of the Learn User Support Workshop will launch on August 19, 2019. The course is entirely web-based — there’s no need to travel anywhere to attend — and completely free. So if you identify as a woman, are based in the Asia-Pacific region, and are serious about a career in user support, this might be a perfect match for you.

Building a better, bigger workshop

The strong positive feedback we received from our students earlier this year, as well as the increasingly long waitlist, inspired us to improve the course content and to design it to accommodate more learners. 

What topics will we cover? As a participant, expect to learn how to…

• Develop your own support philosophy.
• Build successful troubleshooting strategies.
• Manage challenging interactions.
• Implement productivity tools.
• Optimize your approach to applying and interviewing for jobs in support.

This six-module course will start on August 19 and will run through September 29. We will publish a new module every Monday, and each learner will have one week to complete it. We’ll include lots of hands-on work, and by the end of the course, each participant will also develop a résumé and portfolio site on WordPress that they can then share with potential employers.

Meet your friendly organizers

As for your teachers, the people who lead this workshop are Automattic Happiness Engineers — master communicators with deep, wide-ranging experience in distributed technical support. 

Automattic, which offers the workshop, is a fully-distributed company — there are more than 930 full-time Automatticians spread across 70 countries and speaking 88 languages. We serve users from every corner of the world via products like WordPress.com, Jetpack, and WooCommerce, among others. 

As people who believe in the benefits of distributed work, we love helping remote professionals level up their skills. Our commitment to Diversity & Inclusion leads us to look for ways to make the tech sector more representative of the wide and varied world it serves. As a result, this virtual workshop will equip Asia-Pacific-based women who are — or want to become — support professionals with skills that are specifically tailored to the demands of remote work.  

Registration for this cohort is now closed.

Make sure to sign up to be notified about future course offerings from Automattic.

CLICK HERE TO GET NOTIFIED!

In Happiness in particular, we want to provide better support coverage in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, and our APAC recruiting efforts have included everything from advertising on social media and job boards to in-person networking at WordCamps and WordPress Meetups.

While we’ve hired some great Happiness Engineers, we discovered that the ratio of women applicants was dropping over time. As awareness of Automattic as a distributed employer has grown in the region, the number of applications from men has grown faster than those from women.

Given Automattic’s commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion, we brainstormed ways to reach women more effectively. This turned into a series of workshops on WooCommerce held for women in India and Singapore throughout 2018.

In 2019 we’ll take our message to a broader audience by offering an online workshop. This will let us reach women in many more countries and cities than we could ever visit in a calendar year. We’re partnering with Support Driven, an online community of support professionals, to promote support as a career for women who may have the relevant skills but haven’t applied for these roles.

In January 2019 we’ll launch the first online workshop for women in APAC focused on developing skills in WordPress support. The course will cover:

• Goals of great customer support
• Developing your own support philosophy
• WordPress troubleshooting
• Productivity tools
• Support as a career

By the end of the course, students will have developed a résumé and portfolio site on WordPress to share with potential employers.

Want to be notified about this and other upcoming workshops? Sign up here!

Photo by Elijah O’Donnell on Unsplash.

In Happiness in particular, we want to provide better support coverage in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, and our APAC recruiting efforts have included everything from advertising on social media and job boards to in-person networking at WordCamps and WordPress Meetups.

While we’ve hired some great Happiness Engineers, we discovered that the ratio of women applicants was dropping over time. As awareness of Automattic as a distributed employer has grown in the region, the number of applications from men has grown faster than those from women.

Given Automattic’s commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion, we brainstormed ways to reach women more effectively. This turned into a series of workshops on WooCommerce held for women in India and Singapore throughout 2018.

In 2019 we’ll take our message to a broader audience by offering an online workshop. This will let us reach women in many more countries and cities than we could ever visit in a calendar year. We’re partnering with Support Driven, an online community of support professionals, to promote support as a career for women who may have the relevant skills but haven’t applied for these roles.

In January 2019 we’ll launch the first online workshop for women in APAC focused on developing skills in WordPress support. The course will cover:

• Goals of great customer support
• Developing your own support philosophy
• WordPress troubleshooting
• Productivity tools
• Support as a career

By the end of the course, students will have developed a résumé and portfolio site on WordPress to share with potential employers.

Want to be notified about this and other upcoming workshops? Sign up here!

Photo by Elijah O’Donnell on Unsplash.

In Happiness in particular, we want to provide better support coverage in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, and our APAC recruiting efforts have included everything from advertising on social media and job boards to in-person networking at WordCamps and WordPress Meetups.

While we’ve hired some great Happiness Engineers, we discovered that the ratio of women applicants was dropping over time. As awareness of Automattic as a distributed employer has grown in the region, the number of applications from men has grown faster than those from women.

Given Automattic’s commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion, we brainstormed ways to reach women more effectively. This turned into a series of workshops on WooCommerce held for women in India and Singapore throughout 2018.

In 2019 we’ll take our message to a broader audience by offering an online workshop. This will let us reach women in many more countries and cities than we could ever visit in a calendar year. We’re partnering with Support Driven, an online community of support professionals, to promote support as a career for women who may have the relevant skills but haven’t applied for these roles.

In January 2019 we’ll launch the first online workshop for women in APAC focused on developing skills in WordPress support. The course will cover:

• Goals of great customer support
• Developing your own support philosophy
• WordPress troubleshooting
• Productivity tools
• Support as a career

By the end of the course, students will have developed a résumé and portfolio site on WordPress to share with potential employers.

Want to be notified about this and other upcoming workshops? Sign up here!

Photo by Elijah O’Donnell on Unsplash.

In Happiness in particular, we want to provide better support coverage in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, and our APAC recruiting efforts have included everything from advertising on social media and job boards to in-person networking at WordCamps and WordPress Meetups.

While we’ve hired some great Happiness Engineers, we discovered that the ratio of women applicants was dropping over time. As awareness of Automattic as a distributed employer has grown in the region, the number of applications from men has grown faster than those from women.

Given Automattic’s commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion, we brainstormed ways to reach women more effectively. This turned into a series of workshops on WooCommerce held for women in India and Singapore throughout 2018.

In 2019 we’ll take our message to a broader audience by offering an online workshop. This will let us reach women in many more countries and cities than we could ever visit in a calendar year. We’re partnering with Support Driven, an online community of support professionals, to promote support as a career for women who may have the relevant skills but haven’t applied for these roles.

In January 2019 we’ll launch the first online workshop for women in APAC focused on developing skills in WordPress support. The course will cover:

• Goals of great customer support
• Developing your own support philosophy
• WordPress troubleshooting
• Productivity tools
• Support as a career

By the end of the course, students will have developed a résumé and portfolio site on WordPress to share with potential employers.

Want to be notified about this and other upcoming workshops? Sign up here!

Photo by Elijah O’Donnell on Unsplash.

In Happiness in particular, we want to provide better support coverage in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, and our APAC recruiting efforts have included everything from advertising on social media and job boards to in-person networking at WordCamps and WordPress Meetups.

While we’ve hired some great Happiness Engineers, we discovered that the ratio of women applicants was dropping over time. As awareness of Automattic as a distributed employer has grown in the region, the number of applications from men has grown faster than those from women.

Given Automattic’s commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion, we brainstormed ways to reach women more effectively. This turned into a series of workshops on WooCommerce held for women in India and Singapore throughout 2018.

In 2019 we’ll take our message to a broader audience by offering an online workshop. This will let us reach women in many more countries and cities than we could ever visit in a calendar year. We’re partnering with Support Driven, an online community of support professionals, to promote support as a career for women who may have the relevant skills but haven’t applied for these roles.

In January 2019 we’ll launch the first online workshop for women in APAC focused on developing skills in WordPress support. The course will cover:

• Goals of great customer support
• Developing your own support philosophy
• WordPress troubleshooting
• Productivity tools
• Support as a career

By the end of the course, students will have developed a résumé and portfolio site on WordPress to share with potential employers.

Want to be notified about this and other upcoming workshops? Sign up here!

Photo by Elijah O’Donnell on Unsplash.

In Happiness in particular, we want to provide better support coverage in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, and our APAC recruiting efforts have included everything from advertising on social media and job boards to in-person networking at WordCamps and WordPress Meetups.

While we’ve hired some great Happiness Engineers, we discovered that the ratio of women applicants was dropping over time. As awareness of Automattic as a distributed employer has grown in the region, the number of applications from men has grown faster than those from women.

Given Automattic’s commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion, we brainstormed ways to reach women more effectively. This turned into a series of workshops on WooCommerce held for women in India and Singapore throughout 2018.

In 2019 we’ll take our message to a broader audience by offering an online workshop. This will let us reach women in many more countries and cities than we could ever visit in a calendar year. We’re partnering with Support Driven, an online community of support professionals, to promote support as a career for women who may have the relevant skills but haven’t applied for these roles.

In January 2019 we’ll launch the first online workshop for women in APAC focused on developing skills in WordPress support. The course will cover:

• Goals of great customer support
• Developing your own support philosophy
• WordPress troubleshooting
• Productivity tools
• Support as a career

By the end of the course, students will have developed a résumé and portfolio site on WordPress to share with potential employers.

Want to be notified about this and other upcoming workshops? Sign up here!

Photo by Elijah O’Donnell on Unsplash.

Last week I attended the first ever SupConf, held at Automattic headquarters in San Francisco, California. I attended the event with Mindy Postoff. Simon Ouderkirk and Jeremey DuVall gave talks. Andrea Badgley, Andrew Spittle, and Diana Potter helped organize the event, and Joe Boydston volunteered. We’re all Happiness Engineers. Happiness Engineers unite!

SupConf came out of the Support Driven community as a conference for people passionate about support as a career. Being an introvert I was worried about stepping out of my shell. I wanted to make the most of the experience and take advantage of being surrounded by fellow support professionals.

As it turns out it was easy to do.

Support professionals are dedicated to helping others. They’re empathetic communicators who made it easy to have conversations. This meant it was easy to have conversations with everyone there. The structure of the event encouraged interaction: after each speaker we, the audience, discussed questions related to the presentation. This worked so well, that at one point I looked up from the small group I was in to see that many people had left for a break. We were still involved with our conversation and there were some other groups still going as well.

In photo: Simon, Aubrey, Amanda (behind Aubrey), and Sandy. Photo credit: Ben Macaskill.

Talks were organized by theme, with three talks in each theme. For example, Jeremey spoke on improving team performance with his talk, “Hi. I hate your product.” Simon spoke on working with data in his presentation, “Use the data you’ve got.” After a series was complete we broke into smaller groups where we could ask questions of the speaker and others. This worked very well and allowed me to have many great conversations with new people without feeling awkward or uncomfortable.

In all the conversations I had or overheard the feeling was the same:

The way it was designed, participants really got the opportunity to learn so much, not just from the speakers but from fellow attendees as well. — Mindy Postoff

Automattic, and my fellow Happiness Engineers, see support as a critical role. So important in fact that everyone in the company, no matter their role, does a one-week support rotation each year. This includes our CEO! However, that isn’t the case in all companies. Sometimes there is a stigma attached to customer support: it’s perceived as an entry level position, or a job that requires little skill. The community and conference did a wonderful job to bring together people from many different companies who want to make support a role you can build into a career. The speakers gave us ideas and advice which we can take back to become better at our craft, and the confidence to work at making the role of support be seen as a career choice like any other.

If you are passionate about support but missed out on SupConf, I strongly encourage you to check out the Support Driven community. I know I’m going to be more active there now. There is talk of another SupConf, which I very much look forward to. Also know that there are many great companies out there where you can build a career in support, including Automattic. If this sounds like something you are interested in doing, we’re hiring!

Filed under: Community, Events

Last week I attended the first ever SupConf, held at Automattic headquarters in San Francisco, California. I attended the event with Mindy Postoff. Simon Ouderkirk and Jeremey DuVall gave talks. Andrea Badgley, Andrew Spittle, and Diana Potter helped organize the event, and Joe Boydston volunteered. We’re all Happiness Engineers. Happiness Engineers unite!

SupConf came out of the Support Driven community as a conference for people passionate about support as a career. Being an introvert I was worried about stepping out of my shell. I wanted to make the most of the experience and take advantage of being surrounded by fellow support professionals.

As it turns out it was easy to do.

Support professionals are dedicated to helping others. They’re empathetic communicators who made it easy to have conversations. This meant it was easy to have conversations with everyone there. The structure of the event encouraged interaction: after each speaker we, the audience, discussed questions related to the presentation. This worked so well, that at one point I looked up from the small group I was in to see that many people had left for a break. We were still involved with our conversation and there were some other groups still going as well.

In photo: Simon, Aubrey, Amanda (behind Aubrey), and Sandy. Photo credit: Ben Macaskill.

Talks were organized by theme, with three talks in each theme. For example, Jeremey spoke on improving team performance with his talk, “Hi. I hate your product.” Simon spoke on working with data in his presentation, “Use the data you’ve got.” After a series was complete we broke into smaller groups where we could ask questions of the speaker and others. This worked very well and allowed me to have many great conversations with new people without feeling awkward or uncomfortable.

In all the conversations I had or overheard the feeling was the same:

The way it was designed, participants really got the opportunity to learn so much, not just from the speakers but from fellow attendees as well. — Mindy Postoff

Automattic, and my fellow Happiness Engineers, see support as a critical role. So important in fact that everyone in the company, no matter their role, does a one-week support rotation each year. This includes our CEO! However, that isn’t the case in all companies. Sometimes there is a stigma attached to customer support: it’s perceived as an entry level position, or a job that requires little skill. The community and conference did a wonderful job to bring together people from many different companies who want to make support a role you can build into a career. The speakers gave us ideas and advice which we can take back to become better at our craft, and the confidence to work at making the role of support be seen as a career choice like any other.

If you are passionate about support but missed out on SupConf, I strongly encourage you to check out the Support Driven community. I know I’m going to be more active there now. There is talk of another SupConf, which I very much look forward to. Also know that there are many great companies out there where you can build a career in support, including Automattic. If this sounds like something you are interested in doing, we’re hiring!

Filed under: Community, Events