Who is Josepha Haden?
Josepha Haden Chomphosy has been the Executive Director of the WordPress project since 2019. She is responsible and brings leadership to the project’s strategy, growth, and development. Josepha was a key member in making WordPress the CMS used by 43% of the known web. She is responsible for coordinating and directing the work of thousands of voluntary contributors around the world who are part of very many teams to ensure that WordPress is growing and evolving.
The journey of Josepha with WordPress is all about dedication and passion. She juggles feature development, building communities, strategic planning, and outreach, all with incredible ease. Her leadership is in an inclusive and accessible manner, whereby she ensures every user and contributor from all walks of life settles comfortably over WordPress.
But at Automattic, where she heads the open-source part, the influence of Josepha goes deeper. She heads plenty of open-source projects, offers support in innovation, and not just that, it is a powerful tool that Josépha uses toward the better advocacy of diversity, equity, and inclusion within the tech community. The more accessible documentation is, the more doors she opens for countless individuals who might feel left out otherwise.
Expert in communications and digital media, Josepha Haden creates a collaborative and transparent environment for everyone who interacts with WordPress. You can usually find her on stage at all the WordPress events and within community discussions about the future of the platform and its place in the wider landscape of open source.
1. What key skills and qualities do successful WordPress professionals possess, and how can job seekers develop or demonstrate these traits?
Josepha Haden Chomphosy:
Apart from WordPress specific skills (like working in PHP, CSS, JS, etc), a good WordPress professional also has excellent problem solving skills. With 12k themes and 60k plugins, there is a solution for every problem your client has as long as you can:
1) ask the right questions,
2) translate their answers into features, and
3) get to searching in the directories.
2. Can you share a personal or professional setback you faced in your WordPress career, and how you overcame it? What lessons did you learn from that experience?
Josepha Haden Chomphosy:
One of my early setbacks when I was working in marketing was being able to explain why the open source aspect of the software was an asset not a liability. The biggest lesson I learned is that it’s not always about the money or the values—sometimes it’s about the value in spite of the money.
3. What advice do you have for job seekers who feel discouraged or overwhelmed during their job search? How can they stay motivated and maintain a positive mindset?
Josepha Haden Chomphosy:
My longest job search took me about a month (from no job to any job), but then another probably 1.5 years to the job that would kickstart my career growth. The thing that kept me going was learning that the interview process was a mutual activity. Skills are easy to match, but knowing that I was checking if the opportunity and environment would set me up for success, made me more proactive and interested in the process.
4. How can job seekers differentiate themselves in a competitive job market? Are there any unique approaches or strategies that you recommend?
Josepha Haden Chomphosy:
Candidates that stand out when I’m looking at applications are those who have some variety toward the relevant job experience. Having a clear career path is good, but I like to have a sense for how they’ve sharpened their saw along the way. It doesn’t have to be major, just elements that make it clear that they have a broad interest in their expertise and have a grasp of their transferrable skills.
5. What are the emerging trends or areas of growth in the WordPress industry, and how can job seekers align themselves with these opportunities?
Josepha Haden Chomphosy:
Tactically, the dashboard is getting a redesign, so if you have to do client trainings that will be a good thing to keep an early eye on. Generally, however, the closer we get to wrapping up Phase 3 of Gutenberg the less clients need to know about the inner workings of the software itself. It would be a good idea to keep up to speed with the Developer Blog and Hallway Hangouts as you get ready for your early and mid career journey.
You can find Josepha Haden Chomphosy on her blog, WordPress.org, X, and LinkedIn.
Thanks a lot, Josepha, for this interview! ????
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