I never thought I’d end up working in a web development company and, if you’d asked me what a WordPress Specialist did before I came to work here, I wouldn’t have had a clue. That’s part of what makes Illustrate such a special company to work for: they are really passionate about helping you grow and develop, both in your career and as a person.
This week marks 3 months working as a WordPress Specialist and I’d thought it’d be fun to share a little bit of what my working pattern looks like. No two days are the same but there are some regular tasks that go on. It’d be a little boring if I listed my day hour by hour so here’s 5 and ½ things that I do, every day, as a WordPress Specialist.
1. Check support tickets.
We use a system called FreshDesk which enables clients to ask us for help, informs us of downtime and updates that we need to make. The work I’m doing in the day is often determined by how many support requests I have. Offering support is one of the most valuable services that we can give our clients: each one has a different maintenance package but almost all of our websites have support as part of their agreement with us.
2. Review our sites.
We use a world class website management dashboard so that the team and I can see all the site information we need for all the sites that we run. We check the status of the backups, any updates that need to happen, whether any sites went down and for how long, and much more. It’s an invaluable tool, giving us the data that we need in a really simple and clear way.
3. Check Asana and Slack.
Finally, I’ll take a look at Asana, our project management software and Slack, our chat app. This will bring me up to speed on what outstanding tasks I have to do, what projects we are working on and the latest gifs that Josh has been spamming us with.
4. Phone Support.
Part of my job involves being the face (or rather, the voice) of Illustrate. Support calls will come to me, for clients that need help there and then, rather than creating a support ticket. At Illustrate, we act as a client’s internal web department, meaning that we love giving a personal and easy to understand service: phone support isn’t an inconvenience to us, it’s what we do!
5. WordPressing.
It’d be pretty strange if that didn’t come up, since I’m a WordPress Specialist at a WordPress agency. From working on new builds with the team, adding content, or building additional features for existing sites, 80% of my day will be spent using the most popular CMS in the world. Which feels pretty great.
5 ½. Dodging Nerf Gun bullets.
At any given moment, someone in Illustrate has a Nerf Gun in their hand and is trying to figure out the most difficult or impressive shot. This means that, at any given moment, I have to be aware of bullets flying around whilst I’m trying to work. I have mastered the “Don’t you dare shoot me” look but every now and then, someone is brave foolish enough to try. Part of working with 6 boys, I suppose.
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