Karen Arnold, Deborah Beckett, Erica Varlese, and Pam Kocke work on the Happiness Hiring team at Automattic. They hire new Happiness Engineers who support users on WordPress.com and Automattic products. In May and June, they’ll visit WordPress and WooCommerce events in Argentina, Spain, and Austria to meet local WordPress enthusiasts and encourage people to apply to work with us. Don’t be shy! Thinking about applying? We think you should.

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.
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

Tuesday, May 10th at 6pm

Wednesday, May 11th at 7pm

Thursday, May 12th at 6:30pm

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

Saturday, June 18th at 11:30am

Tuesday, June 21st at 6:30pm

Friday June 24th to Sunday, June 26th

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!