In fall 2015, we held the first diversity and inclusion workshop at Automattic’s annual Grand Meetup. As part of a breakout session, we brainstormed around what we could do to give people a good sense of what it’s like to work here. And more specifically, how could we better attract diverse candidates to join us and thrive?
An idea that came up was to collect written testimonials from Automatticians — what we call people who work at Automattic — to use in recruitment efforts, and I volunteered to spearhead that effort. A couple of my colleagues immediately offered to help. Later during the session, our CEO, Matt Mullenweg, suggested that video interviews could be even more effective than written testimonials, and I agreed. Before I knew it, the Meet Our Colleagues video series was born.
Since then, we’ve conducted over 30 interviews, from developers, data scientists and designers, to HR wranglers and business folks. Colleagues volunteered to edit the interviews, and I’m especially grateful to Nancy Thanki, Tish Briseno, Ryan Ray, and our current editor, Glenn Pearson, for their work. Special thanks to my fellow Happiness Engineer Sarah Blackstock, who’s been been my right-hand woman on the project from the start.
Speaking of engineering happiness, many people ask me what being a Happiness Engineer (HE) at Automattic is like, along with advice on what it takes to be a good one — which I’ve written about briefly before. Over the last couple of years, we’ve chatted with many HEs as part of the video series: check out the interviews with Hari Shanker, Carina Pilar, David Cole, Cécile Rainon, Darnell Dibbles, Yuvraj Vaghela, David Watkis, Marjorie Asturias, Doug Aitken, Luminus Alabi, and Praveen Selvasekaran. They help folks get the most out of WordPress.com, WooCommerce, WordPress.com VIP, and other Automattic products, working from around the world: from France to India; Brazil to Scotland; the United States to Ireland.
Stay tuned for more interviews throughout the year!
Kathryn Presner 