Image by Five Minutes with David Cole
Meet and get to know former Justice League of America superhero and Happiness Engineer extraordinaire, David Cole.
Every so often, we sit down with an Automattician to help you get to know the people who work behind the scenes to build new features, keep Automattic’s wheels turning, and make WordPress.com the best it can be. In this installment, we’re delighted to introduce you to husband, father, Happiness Engineer, sports fan, and Justice League of America superhero alumnus, David Cole.
Thinking about applying to work at Automattic? We’re hiring.
What kinds of awesome things do you do at Automattic?
“There’s always something that I can do to make a difference here, and I don’t necessarily have to do the same thing. For instance, in any given week, I can help individual users, improve documentation, report bugs, train staff, and increase my own knowledge and skills.”
As a Happiness Engineer, everything I do revolves around helping others and making WordPress.com a better experience for us all. Since I joined Automattic almost one year ago, I’ve helped users via our public forums, private support channels, and terms of service queues. I’ve also had the privilege of training staff, beta-testing new features, traveling for work/play with my fantastic co-workers, and much more. You’ll currently find me answering questions in real-time as part of the Live Chat squad.
Any special projects you’ve been working on, recently?
A few weeks ago, I helped WordPress users face-to-face at the SXSW conference in Austin,TX. We designated a section of our booth as the “Happiness Bar,” and people from all over the world came to get technical help and general advice for their sites. It was great to meet so many users in person, and I’m really glad that I was able to participate.
Oh, and when I wasn’t answering technical questions, I got to shoot the breeze with booth visitors, and hand out some very cool WordPress swag including t-shirts, stickers, buttons, and sunglasses.
Tell us your expert advice — what tip can you provide the WordPress.com community?
A lot of people ask me how they can get more visitors to their sites. You might also be wondering the same thing. Well, did you know that our Editorial team has put together a fantastic, free ebook to help you with this very thing? If not, you should absolutely download your free copy today!
What do you most enjoy about working at Automattic?
The biggest thing for me is that Automattic highly values its employees. Our work environment is one in which we’re trusted, challenged, and empowered. There’s always something that I can do to make a difference here, and I don’t necessarily have to do the same thing each day. For instance, in any given week, I can help individual users, improve documentation, report bugs, train staff, and increase my own knowledge and skills. If I needed to focus on only a few of those the next week, I could do that as well. Also, there are a lot of really talented people here that I get to learn from each day, and it’s neat to work alongside them to make WordPress.com better.
What do you love to do in your spare time?
In my spare time, I love to learn about the web, photography, and videography. When I can, I head over to local bookstores in search of great books to add to my ever-growing library on these topics. I usually try to put whatever I’m learning into practice as soon as I can. Sometimes that means I’ll snap and edit a few photos, create a very short movie, or build web pages using the latest tools and coding practices.
Sports have always been an important part of my life, so I try to play and watch them as often as I can. I’m super excited about the NBA playoffs this year, and I’ll be spending much of the next few months tuned into what happens there. Go Rockets! Also, when I’m on the road, I’m usually listening to sports radio, church podcasts, tech podcasts, or my favorite tunes. Most importantly (yep even more important than sports), I love spending time with my wife, daughter, and friends.
You may also enjoy Five Minutes with . . .
- Happiness Engineer Kathryn Presner
- HR Lead Lori McLeese
- VIP Global Services Manager Sara Rosso
- Growth Designer Dave Martin
- Design Engineer Mel Choyce
- Happiness Engineer Steve Blythe
- Mobile Engineer Sendhil Panchadsaram
- April 16, 2014
- Automattic, behind the scenes, Community, Hiring
WordPress.com News 
Thank you for all you do, David!
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Hi David,
I don’t believe we have met online but I do want you to know I appreciate all that every Staff member does for us bloggers. Thank you.
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Thanks! very encouraging and insightful, I too, collect any reputable book or article to help in the process of my creativity!
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I really enjoy getting to know more about the people behind WordPress – and I would love to learn where each of these featured individuals were before they began with Automattic. Perhaps info to include in the future?
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