What comes to mind when considering working remotely at home? Perhaps you see yourself copy/pasting boring lists of data every day? Are you concerned that the line between work and home life will become blurred? Or maybe you feel anxious about a lack of community and differences in culture.
Allison Rivers, our Employee of the Month, has recently joined OnTheGoSystems and assures us, “I’m never bored!”
Let’s find out why.
Allison, first tell us a little about yourself.
I’m an American that has lived in South Korea, Finland, and now calls the UK home. My husband and I enjoy traveling, but with the pandemic and lockdown, we’ve enjoyed getting familiar with our new home country instead.
What were you doing before joining OTGS? How did you hear about the company? When did you join?
Before OTGS, I had just moved to the UK. The fact that I move every few years is what originally drew me to the idea of working remotely. In the past, I always had to start over with a new job each time I moved. After moving this time, I found a blog post about fully-remote companies that featured OTGS. I was tremendously lucky to get hired by OTGS six months ago, not only because it will allow me the flexibility to work from anywhere, but also because I found it at a time when many companies were closing their offices due to the pandemic.
Tell us about your job
I am a technical writer for WPML. This means I write and edit user interface content and documentation about how to use WPML. I also participate in marketing activities by writing blog posts, newsletters, and social media posts. I’m available for any other writing or editing that needs to be done as well, such as company blog posts, material for translation and plugin partners, etc.
I’m never bored! :)
What qualifications do you need to be a technical writer?
Aside from having solid writing skills, I think it’s important to have good planning and prioritizing skills in this role. There are requests coming in all the time from many different teams, so being able to organize your work well is essential.
One piece of wisdom I received from Dario, our Documentation Team Leader, is the importance of being curious. In this role, I’m often expected to write documentation about something I know absolutely nothing about. Having a curious attitude, co-workers who are willing to answer all my silly questions, and access to Google have helped me tackle subjects I never would have thought possible before. I’ve learned a ton as a result.
Which teams or employees do you work closely with?
I think I work closely with just about every team! I work with:
- The WPML development team to understand how WPML works and what new features are being released in new updates.
- The Support team to understand what our users have questions about and how to update or create new documentation to help make those things clearer.
- Kasia, our UX designer, to help write content for the user interfaces of the plugin.
- The Compatibility team to write documentation and release notes for our glue plugins.
- The Proxy and Partnership teams to help write content for our translation partners and compatibility partners.
- Julia, our visual designer, to coordinate images for blog posts and social media.
- The Systems team to write about new WPML account features and edit version notes for new releases.
- I even work with the HR team sometimes to review and edit company blog posts.
To work effectively, what kind of schedule do you follow?
I don’t know that there’s a typical day, but I try to follow a similar weekly pattern. On Mondays, I check the deadlines for projects assigned to me and set my priorities for what I need to work on or finish by the end of the week. This way, I can start each workday with a few goals of what I want to accomplish, which keeps me focused and on-track with projects. I also have to be sure to leave space for any last-minute requests, because there are always some of those!
Any hopes and plans for the future?
I’m looking forward to travel restrictions lifting and being able to take advantage of the ability to travel and work at the same time!
Come Work With Us
Are you interested in working with a globally distributed team that encourages growth and advancement? Are you ready to harness the power of technology for a better future?