Tag: work

7 Years with Great People

Nick Momrik2 Comments

Today marks the start of my 8th year with Automattic. When I started on March 13, 2008 I joined a group of 20 great people and I still work with 15 of them.

Some friends and family questioned leaving a stable job at SVSU for a startup based out of San Francisco. During the hiring process, which took about a month, I spent less than an hour on the phone and never sat face-to-face with anyone from the company. People couldn’t really comprehend this or the fact that I’d work from anywhere I wanted on my own hours. Turned out to be the best decision of my life.

Automattic, which will turn 10 this year, hired the 1st employee on June 20, 2005 and currently has 306 great people around the world. If you’re a great person and want to make the web a better place, come work with us.

Chart of Automattic employee counts
Automattic Employees

Loving Work is Possible

Quote Nick Momrik2 Comments

If you asked me four years ago if I thought it were possible to enjoy working, I’d be dubious. If you asked me whether one could ever genuinely love and respect all their coworkers, I’d hesitate. Over the past four years, the people of Automattic have demonstrated to me that it’s possible to do work […]

Happiness is Automattic

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By stripping away the need to follow a script or try to up-sell someone, Automattic has made it possible for its Happiness Team to address users not as customers, but as people. via At WordPress, Happiness is Automattic | Unencumbered by Facts. Just another reason why I think I work for one of the best […]

A New Role

Nick Momrik7 Comments

In early 2008, I was working in ITS at SVSU. I was working with good friends and had a stable job. I didn’t enjoy it. I dreaded waking up and going to work every morning. I couldn’t see where I was going because I wasn’t going anywhere. I developed sleeping problems and took Lunesta for over a year to help me sleep.

Take a Risk to Follow Your Dreams

In late January of 2008, I was in San Francisco for the MacWorld Conference and Expo. I attended a WordPress meetup and met Matt Mullenweg. A week later I applied for a job at Automattic, started contracting shortly after, and was hired as a Happiness Engineer in the middle of March.

When I broke the news to my family they were worried. They wanted to support me, but didn’t understand it. I was leaving a steady paycheck where I had worked for over 8 years. Automattic was a young company which didn’t exist until the middle of 2005 and there were only 20 employees. The economy was heading in the wrong direction and I was venturing into the unknown to work from home for a web company.

I went with my gut and my heart. I took the leap.

Make the Most of Your Opportunities

When you work for a company like Automattic, everyone is a rock star at what they do. “Where do I fit in with these people?” is a common thought for new employees. You soon get over it and hunt out your co-workers to learn everything you can.

This type of learning started for me when my Dad taught me the value of hard work. When I was about 12, he helping me with my first paper routes. I took that knowledge on to mowing and raking lawns in high school. If you work hard and do a good job people will pay for your services.

Good Things Will Happen

You may not reach your dreams or goals for a month, a year, or several years. Keep at it. Enjoying what you do is one of the greatest feelings in the world.

Today is my first day in a new role at Automattic. I’ll be working with Matt as his Technical Assistant which is a position similar to an idea Bill Gates had at Microsoft.

Our company has been hiring at a rapid pace. We have 60 employees and there are no signs of slowing down. To help with growth, many of my first projects will involve improvements to our internal systems.

I’m very excited about this new opportunity and look forward to the future of Automattic.