First Day at Automattic

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Welcome to your first day as an Automattician. We’re so glad you’re here and part of the team! This is your first-day guide to getting oriented at Automattic.

What will I be doing?

In your first two weeks, before you land on your team, you’ll complete your orientation and learn about our ways of working, our culture, and how we communicate. You’ve already started (by reading this page)!

Support Rotation

You’ll complete a support rotation designed to give you insight into our users and products while gaining first-hand experience with what support means at Automattic. Your support rotation will involve the following components:

Self-paced learning in Learnomattic, our internal training site.
Real-life examples of how Happiness Engineers (HEs) solve tickets – either synchronously (via Zoom/Google Meet) or asynchronously (via Slack) or by watching recorded ride-along sessions.
Working on customer tickets in Zendesk.
Working on Live Chat using Happy Chat (optional).

Join other Automatticians on their support rotation in the #welcome-to-happiness Slack channel to ask questions and share this experience together!

Why?

Everyone who joins Automattic follows this program and learns how to provide support in practice, leverage the help of others, and use the tools that form the basis of future communication.

We’ve structured the first two weeks to provide:

An orientation to Automattic,
An understanding of the products we build and support,
A space for meaningful connections with other Automatticians and our customers,
An experience interacting with our communication tools.

Take some time today to explore this page and the content it links to. Learn about our history, finish setting up your computer and workspace, and meet some fellow Automatticians along the way!

Things to Remember

There is a lot of information presented during this time, and there is no expectation for you to be an expert immediately.

A great place to ground yourself in Automattic’s values is through our creed. During the first two weeks, an invaluable line to remember is “I am in a marathon, not a sprint“. And you can think of that marathon as a “team sport” — connecting with your colleagues is key.

Here are some helpful tips shared by Automatticians after their orientation:

Create a bookmarks folder to save useful links to refer back to. This way, you can easily find the information when you need it in the future.
Be aware of the ‘rabbit holes’ with each page containing links to other pages (with even more links). You can always revisit interesting topics over time. Ask yourself — do I really need to read this all, right now?
Ask for help. Our exceptional Happiness Engineers are here to support you to help our customers during your support rotation. You’re not expected to have all of the answers at this stage; it’s about learning where to look to find solutions. Everyone you ask for help has been in your shoes, too.
Try to relax, get to know others, and do your best — that is enough!

Automattic History

Automattic has a rich history beginning in 2005. An essential part of this is through mergers & acquisitions that, over time, formed the company you have joined today.

Welcomemattic is a selection of ‘need to know’ resources for New Automatticians (Newmatticians) for you to revisit as needed.

Communication Tools

You may have already been introduced to some of Automattic’s communication tools during the trial process, and prompted to set up logins for platforms you’ll need to access. During your orientation, you’ll be introduced (or re-introduced) to a set of tools to enable you to communicate with others, connect with your fellow Newmatticians and interact with the Happiness folks during support rotation.

When you land on your team, these tools will form the basis for a large part of your work at Automattic, as we say in our creed “I will communicate as much as possible, because it’s the oxygen of a distributed company.”

The tools you use at Automattic will evolve depending on your role or team. Before your start date and for the first two weeks, you’ll be provided access to a set of foundational tools to familiarize yourself with.

P2
Slack
Field Guide
Matt’s Global Search (MGS)
Learnomattic
Internal tools for support (we’ll share these in your training materials)

Making Connections

You’ll be added to a few integral Slack channels and P2 sites by default. To help you get oriented and make connections with others, below is a short list of good places to join and explore.

Company-wide:

For important updates: #announcements

To replicate watercooler conversations with others across the company: #watercooler and Autocooler

To form connections with others and be paired with another Automattician every four weeks: #a8c-lifechat

To get extra help during your Support Rotation and chat with other Automatticians

P2 Sites Directory: All P2s

Geographical:

There are many Automatticians located close to each other across the world. Localmatticians have created several channels that you can browse and add to, should there need to be one for your area!

Identity and Belonging-focused: We’d love to see you in our Automattician Resource Group (ARG) channels.

Take some time to explore the vast array of Slack channels & P2 sites. Try typing in anything you are interested in and discover if there is an existing channel or site with folks who share your interests!

Next: Howdy! →

Employee Field Guide