Otto Wald – a detective looking for clues to catch the bug
October 20, 2016
Otto lives in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina.
He tells us:
Buenos Aires is a big crowded city, 3m inhabitants, very cosmopolitan and full of cultural and sports events. It’s the home of the Tango and the famous “parillas” (steakhouses ) but here you can also find Indian, French, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Thai, Scandinavian, Mexican, Brazilian, Peruvian, Armenian or American food.
Buenos Aires never sleeps! Restaurants open at 9pm, bars at midnight and clubs at 2am so you can dance until the sun comes up!
Quoting one of its writers: “It’s the kind of city travelers fall in love with, dream about and then move to!” You can read more about my city here.
I would rather live in a small town, but as my kids are here I can’t do it now. I tried but, even though it wasn’t too far away, I chose to return to the city. I have a sister leaving here in Buenos Aires and my mom is in Gualeguay, 234 km north-west from Buenos Aires. I lived there for two years.
I spend the weekends mostly with my kids. Lately I changed my working hours so I start and finish half an hour before / later. With two hours for lunch and I can use that time to do some exercise :), it was a wise move.
I meditate. I learnt a wonderful technique called Vipassana, one of India’s most ancient techniques of meditation. I recommend to everybody to give it a try :) https://www.dhamma.org/.
What were you doing before joining OTGS and how did you hear about the company? When did you join?
I was creating WP sites for clients and agencies with a partner. For one of our jobs my partner bought a WPML licence and she got an email inviting her to apply. Luckily she forwarded the invitation to me :) I joined the WPML Support team in April 2015.
What is involved in your role and what knowledge and experience is needed?
You need to be WP savvy and have a good knowledge of WPML, but the most important things are:
- Caring
- Searching (nobody knows everything, so being good at searching is a must)
- Communicating
- Productivity: always looking for ways to do things better and faster
- Trying to improve these four qualities every day.
Easy ;)
I’m sure you face many difficult challenges every day, but what would you say balances these?
I like the challenges. Each day you have to figure out something new, you are a detective looking for clues to catch the bug. The main challenge is not to burn out. Also, it’s very important not to forget that you are dealing with people, and you can make or ruin their day.
What I like most is the mood of the team. Everybody is always willing to help and cheering each other on so we can enjoy working “alone”.
I shared this video a hundred times in our skype group (but that’s the spirit): watch it.
So how does a typical day go for you?
I start checking mails and reviewing what happened on the skype chat group to catch up with issues and updates.
After that I type: “Good morning!!!” in the chat group :)
Check my queue and get my “mate”. (Argentina’s national drink made from steeped yerba mate leaves).
Then I start replying tickets and taking new ones.
When the workload allows I spend some time digging deeper on interesting issues, improving my workflow or on some other task (i.e. co-organizing La Plata WordPress meetup or doing this interview :p)
Have you given any thought as to what the future could hold for you?
I would like to keep growing in support and helping our team to become better each day. I can see that improving on what we do is helping more and more people and that’s awesome.
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