Original Source: https://happinessengineer.blog/2018/10/24/from-trial-to-jetpack-he/
Four weeks into my Happiness Engineer Trial I recall the moment I was pinged in Slack to have a ‘chat’ about whether or not I was going to be recommended to HR for a ‘HR chat’ – the next stage in the hiring process. It had been an intense four weeks – so much information to learn, so many interactions, experiences, and moments, all in the world of WordPress.com
A couple of weeks later and I was pinged again – this time I was told that if all went well I’d be heading to the Jetpack(JPOP) division!
Jetpack?!
OMG I thought – what is Jetpack? No, in reality, I thought, Jetpack? VaultPress? But I haven’t worked with these before!
I was a little stunned – I’d just spent four intense weeks getting to know people in WordPress.com and understanding how things work, and now I was going to move somewhere else?
I was a little sad about moving away from WordPress.com, but this was really short-lived.
For one, I was so thrilled to even just be working for Automattic that nothing else really mattered!
The Welcome
From the moment my team lead reached out to me, before I even started full-time, I felt really warmly welcomed and knew that I would soon feel at home amongst this new team of people.
Starting full-time was nothing like being on the trial though. The emphasis was on taking the time needed to go through the training materials, and immersing yourself slowly into the world of JPOP tickets with two weeks of paired ticketing with a buddy. It was a great way to see how the JPOP team dealt with the typical questions that were asked.
Asking all the questions
After the first two weeks, I was on my own, finding my feet. It was a little scary at first. For many tickets, I felt like I did not know the answer or know where to look.
I felt like I did not want to be a burden on the JPOP crew, but the best way to move forward is to just ask, ask and ask. No matter how silly the question!
Settling in
It’s been more than 3 months now! And I still make sure to ask silly questions. There is so much to learn – we are all always learning.
One line in the Automattic Creed has really stood out for me: ‘I will never pass up an opportunity to help out a colleague, and I’ll remember the days before I knew everything’. My colleagues have been amazing, and as new colleagues join our division I’ll do whatever I can to help them out.
Another one of the great things about working in JPOP is that aside from helping our JPOP colleagues, we can also help out our colleagues in WordPress.com when they have questions about Jetpack, Akismet, VaultPress or Gravatar.
Now I am incredibly happy that I am on the JPOP crew and grateful I have this opportunity to dive deeply into the world of Jetpack, Akismet, VaultPress, and Gravatar.
I won’t forget the experience of being a trial in WordPress.com, nor of stepping into JPOP and starting fresh all over again, thanks to the amazing support, patience and feedback from fellow Happiness Engineers 🙂