My general timeline of becoming an Happiness Engineer
This is how I started as a Happiness Engineer for Automattic.
Finally I put it in writing so I can look back in the future.
Automattic is an awesome company! Feel free to have a look at the available positions here for you to apply.
Starting full time as WooCommerce Happiness Engineer, for Automattic!
What a feeling 🙂
Finally I started full time, and began my 7 weeks onboarding into WooCommerce happiness division.
Someone from HR team reached out
He asked about how the trial went and if there was any feedback about the process, etc.
Eventually, he asked me when I’d like to start as a full time Happiness Engineer. I confirmed I could start by 15 February, which was just a few days away from that day, short notice!
I was offered a full time contract to sign, which I immediately signed and returned!
My Trial Lead asked me to write a recap of the past 3 weeks trial
I wasn’t sure why instead of the regular weekly recap, I was asked to prepare a recap for the whole 3 weeks training.
Following that recap, my Lead asked to schedule a meeting in my trial Slack channel.
Initially, I was asked how I thought about the training for the past 3 weeks. The meeting went for about 30 minutes or so.
To my surprise and excitement, I was told eventually: “I want to let you know that I’ve discussed things with the hiring team, and I’d like to forward your name to HR with a recommendation that you join Automattic as a Happiness Enginneer.”
Speechless! I was super happy, alhamdulillah.
The first day, as a Happiness Engineer Trial!
Embrace the chaos! That’s all about it.
A lot to digest, learn and practice.
I was assigned with a Team Lead who was part of the Hiring Team, and also a Buddy Lead, a senior Happiness Engineer who would provide direction and training on how to execute my daily work as an Happiness Engineer.
First few days, I was assigned to complete a few courses about areas that I was about to handle and cover.
The last day on that first week, I met my Buddy who gave me the training how to start handling and responding tickets and chats.
The following week, I was fully starting my own interaction directly responding to tickets and chats.
I handled tickets and chats, from the WordPress.com customers, with issues ranging from domain management, account related ones to things like website changes, etc.
From what I read from other Happiness Engineers’ experience, the trial period would last for a month. Regularly, my performance in terms of quantity and quality of my interaction dealing with tickets and chats was evaluated.
I was expected to write my own daily/weekly recap of what I learned and completed during those training days.
An offer to start working as a Happiness Engineer on trial basis!
An offer came in to my email, I couldn’t tell how happy I was at that time.
Initially, I was really anxious. It was advised before, within the next day or two I would get an email follow-up, but three weeks were gone without any news.
On 7th January 2021, that “long-awaited” email eventually came in!
I was offered to start as an Happiness Engineer on trial basis starting on 18 January 2021.
Got everything in place that day immediately, including signing the trial contract!
The interview!
I read some stories about the interview process from other Happiness Engineers’ blogs, I could feel the intense feeling as well. I was a bit nervous, but I was determined to make it as smooth and relaxed as possible.
The interview took place in the morning, two people from a different part of the World connected.
It started off by asking how I did the assignment back then. I was aware that I was going to be asked this question, as I learned from other Happiness Engineer application stories.
Glad, I was able to explain well how I did it from the start up to the end, completing list of tasks as part of the assignment.
Then the next questions were what I thought about the hiring process, how I knew the Happiness Engineer position, and then what I would expect to do on daily basis as an Happiness Engineer, also I was asked to rate myself of what level of skills or expertise in a few areas like WordPress platform, CSS, and others.
Alhamdulillah, I was able to answer all of the questions that best I could.
The interview lasted for about 30-45 minutes, and I was told that she would review her notes and discuss things with the hiring team. I was advised to expect an email follow-up within the next day or two.
Got a Slack invite
I was invited to a private group channel, and got a welcome message from the Director of Happiness Experience. The interview itself was scheduled on 11 December 2020
Got an invite to do an interview!
Another surprise came in, on the same data, 25 November 2020, I was invited by Hiring Team for an interview!
Not that fancy interview, that you have to wear a tie, and a suit. Rather it’s an informal text interview done via Slack!
The interview didn’t occur on this date, I was asked to fill out my availability for the next two weeks.
So the actual interview schedule would happen within the following two weeks.
Submitted my availability and then I went back to “waiting-mode”.
Assigned task completed
I don’t like to take something long when I can do it quicker. Glad, I was able to complete the task the next day.
Got reply from the Hiring Team!
It was a pure surprise that I got a reply from the Hiring Team the next day!
A website-related small assignment to complete a task was enclosed in the reply.
The instruction was both clear and vague, I was asked to use my best judgment to complete it.
I was advised to complete it within 3-5 days. No Rush.
Submitted application for Happiness Engineer position
After reading a few blog posts about how other Happiness Engineer started, I decided to apply for Happiness Engineer role at Automattic, clicking apply on this page, then got redirected to this page where I completed the application submission.