That’s How I got to Automattic 

Several events have converged over the last week or so that have resulted in this wildly overdue “How I became a Happiness Engineer” post.

One is you may have noticed my blog has a shiny new domain name.  My employer, Automattic, is the company behind the new .blog  top level domain and they gave each of us one with one condition:  Blog at least once per month. I’ve not been great about that recently so I’m using the domain as a push to reinvigorate my posting habits.  I think we both know that what it really means is way more cat pictures, but I thought I’d start out with a real post.

The second thing is December 22 marked my 2 year anniversary as a Happiness Engineer. Now it sort of seems like I’ve always been here but looking back at old journals I’m remembering just how badly I wanted this job and how much of a long shot it seemed to be at the time.

The third thing is this rendition of “How I got to Memphis”  from News Room.  The song has become a favorite but what sticks with me is why they used it:

So how did I get to Automattic? The path was not direct, but sort of perfect in its way.  Here are some of the highlights

• ISCABBS
• UNK Theatre Department 
• Facilitation Training
• Paul Graham essays, especially “What You Can’t Say” and “Hackers and Painters“
• Organizational Consulting for the Non-Profit Arts
• Seth Godin
• A friend who needed a blog
• A series of gigs for nonprofits with no marketing budget but a willingness to let me do “internet stuff” if it didn’t interfere with my real work.
• Sonia Simone and the Remarkable Marketing Blueprint
• Low Hanging Fruit
• Codecadamy
• WordPress.com Forums
• Robyn’s sweet post about my volunteer work
• And a pretty big serving of luck and serendipity

It’s been a wild ride but I couldn’t be happier to have purchased the ticket.

Want to join me?  We are hiring.