There’s No ‘I’ In Team

I’m grateful to have a joined a company that is built on remote work culture, as I quite enjoy having the autonomy and freedom to work on what, when, and where I want, but more than that, it’s the folks working behind the curtains that make all the difference, at least for me.

As of this writing, there are 751 Automatticians in 66 countries speaking 81 different languages distributed across the globe, all working remotely on different teams.

I work alone, but never have I felt lonely. For me, opening up Slack on my computer is sort of like the equivalent of walking into an office. Certainly, that’s a major difference between working remotely on your own, versus working remotely with a team.

The ‘who’ is really what ties my Automattic work experience all together in this type of remote environment. I’m part of a small team that spans across the APAC region of the world, and we’re known as Team Patronus 🙂Continue reading “There’s No ‘I’ In Team”

Home Office, Cafe, Coworking Space, Oh My

Nearly four months ago, it took me almost an hour to go from door-to-door for my commute to work.

I’d wake up at 6am, fix breakfast for myself and my son, get dressed, drop my son off at daycare at around 7am-ish, hop on the morning train, get off at my station and walk another 10 minutes to reach my workplace, then another 10 minutes to get settled down and find myself actually in my seat at 7:50am. So in total, it took almost 2 hours between waking up and getting to my desk, ready to work.

Fast forward to present day — I wake up, take about 5-10 seconds to walk over to my computer, and I’m here at my office ready to work 🙂Continue reading “Home Office, Cafe, Coworking Space, Oh My”

Swagged Out

It’s been a while! And I just want to reflect on the past 5 weeks since I started with Automattic. It’s been a roller coaster ride with the time moving by so quickly these days. Perhaps, I’m living parallel by the old adage — time flies when you’re having fun.Continue reading “Swagged Out”

My Journey of How I Went From Teaching English in Japan to a Career in Tech With The Coolest Company in the World

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Oh so bittersweet

The teacher life was an interesting experience while it lasted, but it was finally time to move on. There were of course elements and particular parts of my teaching experience that I will always love i.e. seeing those light bulb moments on students’ faces, helping eager students progress toward their goals, sharing ideas of personal development & education.

However, it was ultimately the uninspiring environment (unproductive meetings, monotonous non-teaching related tasks, etc.), subpar working conditions (low pay, job instability, regular six-day-weeks, overtime, etc.), and inability to pursue my real passions that steered me clear of continuing on with the English teaching path.

Continue reading “My Journey of How I Went From Teaching English in Japan to a Career in Tech With The Coolest Company in the World”