Because of WordPress

When we choose a spouse, we choose someone who matches our values. When we choose a home we choose a space that matches our needs. We look for all the green flags, all the boxes to be checked, and we don’t accept red flags. We say no to cockroaches, no to cheaters, no to leaky plumbing. 

When it comes to a job, though, we take what we can get. We fear losing, we let red flags slide and when it’s bad, we still stick around and hope it gets better. We tell ourselves it’s the only option we have.

We don’t imagine that there could be real fulfillment. We believe this is it: the 9 to 5, the endless grind. Work for the man and hope you end up with a retirement plan, at best. Hold on to that job – you never know how far and how hard you could fall without it.

A space without hierarchy, a space where everyone has a voice, a space where inclusion and diversity are virtues seems like a smoke dream. 

Until you discover WordPress.

And so it went for me. Deep in the work, sleep, die cycle. Thinking this was it. I kissed my dreams goodbye, succumbed to being a slave to my paycheck because after all, I have a family to feed. Priorities, Amy. Priorities.

Discovering WordPress

Sometimes you aren’t even looking and you trip over something, not knowing what you’ve stumbled into. Then suddenly five years have passed and you have lasting friendships and a whole a$$ career. Your kids are fed, your bills are paid and you are happy.

And that’s how it happened for me. I did what I had to, grabbed what job I could, worked hard and then got shoved face first into the lap of WordPress, without a clue what I was getting into. Without a clue that my life had just changed. I was actually quite angry. I was supposed to be promoted from my wildly underpaid tech support job to a wildly underpaid live chat supervisor job. How DARE they change their minds and pigeonhole me as a WordPress Tech!!?

But the reality unfolded rather quickly after that. That when it comes to WordPress, there are only green flags. There is only a match in values. There is only a world where people’s human needs are met.

The need for community, the need to be part of something bigger than you, the need for connection, the need to learn, to grow, to watch something else grow. The need for one step to lead to the next, where paths are abundant and there are no dead ends. I had no idea what I had just been shoved into.

I made the best of it. I helped form a new WordPress dedicated support team. I fixed websites, I trained other agents, I determined policies and practices, and I started going to WordPress.org team meetings. At first I thought that I was just supporting the endeavors of my employer, but the truth is, it was much more than that.

Finding the Community

My first meeting was with the Hosting team. I hopped on Zoom unaware that I would already know every face in the room. Unaware that I would be going to these meetings every week for the next five years. Unaware that I’d become a Team Rep and get my fingerprints all over the Open Source Project. Unaware that I would find friends, learn so much, build skills and be offered jobs. Unaware that there were 30,000 people on the other end of the keyboard, and 400 million opportunities.

I stayed in that job for years, and I extended myself way beyond my technical support role. I had ideas for how to support WordPress users and brought them to the leadership team. They were interested, though not completely onboard, but still gave me the greenlight to go ahead and try. 

I started offering developer services to their enterprise WordPress customers, instead of turning them away saying “we don’t do that here”. The customers were into it. They wanted and they needed that type of support. I stumbled upon more and more customers that needed developer help and offered them that help. I got my teammates involved. We were seeing results and the results were good. 

Happy customers, new streams of revenue and increased customer retention. Instead of being angry and at a loss, tech support customers had real options for resolution. They were willing to pay extra and they kept coming back for more. They praised us and our work. 

The VP of product and the CEO started noticing. They decided to mentor me and trained me in product development, agile software development and leadership. I started to flush out user journeys, product packages and made a two-year strategy for the growth of the developer service that is now a full blown product offering. After the first year they had me do a win loss report, and we found that the service had earned revenue just through word of mouth, before it was even established. Boom.

And yet I was struggling to buy food. I was living under the poverty line. I was being praised, but not paid. Business owners take heed, this is how you lose good employees.

I was a tech support agent who was helping run a team, fixing customer problems, developing a product, pushing code, creating business strategies and making revenue for the org. All while starving. All while witnessing my developer friends at the same company make six figures. I became disgruntled, I became more vocal about it, and I lost the favor of leadership by complaining – despite the fact that my complaints were valid. Lesson learned. After a while, I was just too unhappy with what I was paid for my numerous roles and quit out of frustration.

I had no idea what was going to happen next. I started studying code and blogging. I was elected into a Team Rep position on the WordPress Open Source Project. I practiced making WordPress themes and plug-ins. I learned Symfony, I learned some Javascript and Python, I learned how to have faith in myself and how to acquire clients outside of the stream of tech support. I became a Meetups organizer and got involved in WordCamps. I started sharing skills that I had learned and had used to survive in the tech field.

I never wanted to be a freelancer or a web developer though. I actually prefer doing system administration over web development – so I kept looking for a full-time gig. After a few months, I landed a job as a WordPress Tech Lead. I got to work with design and development and build out pipelines, work with servers, clients and code.

Then Covid happened, and I think everyone can agree what a nightmare that was. I got hit with the first strain of Covid and was so, so sick. I couldn’t move for three months. I lost my job and I was too sick to care. I was blessed that my colleagues in the WordPress community cared, though. They supported me and some of them even prayed for my recovery. One of my hosting teammates suggested applying to a job with his employer. I said “alright whatever”, found an easy tech-support role that I definitely could do and applied. 

They interviewed me and turned me away, saying I was overqualified. Bummer. Then a few weeks later, I got a phone call from them offering me an interview for a different position. A job as a Web Development Manager. I liked the idea despite my wicked imposter syndrome, and after some rounds of interviews, they offered me the job. I was there for two years and I loved my team. I was working with designers and developers, leadership and marketers. I got to work with servers, various tech stacks, DevOps pipelines, design systems, accessibility and SEO.

From there, I was recruited into a Solutions Architect position. Then I was recruited again for a Developer role. I didn’t apply anywhere, I wasn’t looking and all I did was work hard, invest in my skills, be open to options and oh yeah – get involved with WordPress.

Now I keep picking up clients and I have more work than I can realistically handle. I’m going to have to start hiring other people to help me out soon. Maybe I’ll file for an LLC and take all that knowledge and experience, all that momentum and roll it up into one big future as a boss lady. Bring the WordPress values I feel so aligned with to the table on MY terms. The tech industry needs more boss ladies.

I don’t honestly know what’s coming next, but I know I don’t need to worry because I have the right community, the right skills, the right resources and endless opportunities.

All because of one little package of code. All because of the amazing people behind it. All because of WordPress.