Call this as a “progress update” with my WordPress Developer Blueprint program at Skillcrush, but after going through the basic fundamentals of theme development, I knew immediately that I’m going to have to figure out how I’m seriously going to launch my career as a WordPress nerdette once my three months of WordPress education and apprenticeship is over. When I visited the WordPress website and check out their codex for more info on template tags, I came across some fresh and awesome info for those who fell in love with this robust open source blogging/content management platform.
I can start volunteering at any one of the following:
- Member of the Theme Review Team
- Member of the Codex Documentation Team1
- Member of the WordPress Documentation Team2
- Support Forums Volunteer3
I shared this info with my classmates at the Skillcrush Mightybell Community so we can all earn our own street creds as fresh WordPress developers in current training. Other than certification from Skillcrush, some experience in contributing back to the WordPress community would be such a valuable asset to add to our resumes and portfolios. And speaking of resumes and portfolios, I really do need to get my lazy ass off and get cracking with redesigning my portfolio so I won’t have to rush in building it and right after I’m done with my training.
Another valuable info that I found during my visit at the WordPress website is that the company behind this awesome software, Automattic, is actually hiring part-time and full-time positions everyday— remote positions too! Just seeing this really made my heart leap for joy! With the available positions, I feel like I have found my goal to take my first steps in becoming a (freelance?) WordPress developer. As an Automattic employee,4 I can work at the comfort of my home, plus I get benefits and perks too at the same time! There will be some light traveling, but that would be for the company meetups and wordcamps and all that. Just reading about it and thinking about it just got me really excited!
It’s past 1:00 am now, actually almost 1:30. I still got to get up early tomorrow for work. If I do succeed in reaching my goals involving WordPress, I won’t have to sort and carry Amazon packages anymore. 
On the sidenote...
- Wiki site experience required, plus all other requirements, like technical writing skills or something… [↩]
- for those who are interested in being part of the Codex Doc Team but doesn’t have the skills I mentioned in the previous footnotes. For example, grammar nazis, QA peeps, and those who love to write and can write more than one language fluently… [↩]
- no need to do anything… just sign up for an account at the support forums and just pitch in your WordPress “elite”-ness.
[↩] - Happiness Engineer? [↩]
03/02/2015 @ 5:03 pm
Wow! I didn’t know Automattic hired people all the time, or if they hired at all! I find this pretty cool… I should brush back up on my WordPress dev skills, because we’re on version 4, and the last time I coded anything for WordPress myself specifically, we were on version 2. :x
Good luck to you! :D
03/02/2015 @ 7:54 pm
Thanks for stopping by Liz!
I actually struggled a lot with WordPress customization before when I started using WordPress (I think it was ver. 2 even). Before my migration to WordPress, I started off with Blogger (before Google purchased it), Greymatter (when I learned that you can install an actual blogging system in the server— stopped when the developer quit on the program), then Movable Type (it used to be free/open source, but then they started charging people just to use it, charge even more if you want support). I’m a huge supporter of open source, so I moved to WordPress. Finally learning how to make child themes finally saved my life. I was actually thinking of switching systems again (probably Expression Engine or even those newer ones like Ghost
), but nope, not this time.
Once I’m done with the blueprint program I can start volunteering before I can make my move in applying for a remote job position at Automattic. You should consider it also. Working at home + basic benefits + other perks…
03/03/2015 @ 2:49 am
Happy to see this post! I’m about to start this blueprint myself after reading your post about starting it
I figured it’s a better use of my time and money than the classes I’ve been taking at school so I’m giving it a go! Thanks for bringing it to my attention
03/04/2015 @ 1:26 am
Wow, congrats on embarking your WordPress journey through the blueprint Keeshia. I salute thee~!
Trust me, the money is very well worth it. The ladies (yes, ladies LOL) at Skillcrush are so awesome breaking down the fundamentals in to something we can easily understand. Best part of the blueprint is that it also teaches you the best practices of WordPress in a business/client setting, and much later (in my case, this will be in April) a one-on-one apprenticeship with the instructor (who’s also the CEO of Skillcrush too) and actually working with a real client.
I have a BFA in Visual Communications, emphasizing on graphic and web design, but unfortunately, around the time I graduated, everything I learned from college was already considered outdated by the modern industry standards, so I’m stuck in to finding ways to get myself updated again and I’m not gonna shell out thousands of dollars just for that again. I take some courses at Udemy also, and sometimes at Codeacademy, but it’s hard to retain everything that you learned because you don’t know when you’ll put them in to real-life practice.
Good luck with your journey, and if you need any help you can always contact me.