Category: Interviews

There’s an ongoing discussion/debate on women in technology in general and WordPres in particular. While the technology industry is as misogynist as any other, the WordPress community is known to be more inclusive compared to anything else. The speaker line-ups at WordCamps and other tech events, the ratio of audience members don’t reflect the actual number of women working with WordPress is what many of us feel.

Maybe that is because such events are male dominated and we pass of men’s t-shirts as unisex! To send a message across to women so that they see if this community or this particular WordCamp is any different and if they should take the effort and time to come to Pune, we spoke to six Women attending WordCamp Pune in various roles!

What role does WordPress play in your profession?

Priya It’s the easiest and most flexible CMS I’ve ever used. It made it easy for me to create websites and blogs without having to pay for expensive developer fees. My business, as a blogger and social media marketer, exists today thanks to WordPress.

Juhi My profession started with WordPress. I joined rtCamp as a Quality Analyst. I make WordPress themes and plugins better. As I learn more about WordPress, my interest increases day by day.

Sheeba I am a freelancer since the last 2 years providing web development & support services. Primarily, I use WordPress for most of my web development services. I found WordPress easy to understand and most important I have been getting great support from the WordPress community. Though I did not have any PHP coding experience, I still found that I could setup WordPress and learn along my way. And I have never looked back  and definitely thankful to WordPress to make my transition from a 9-5 job to freelancing so fruitful.

Nisha WordPress is very important in my professional career; because of WordPress I am where I am. My journey started as a Quality Analyst in WPoets technology testing sites and themes built on WordPress. Now I spent my free time testing themes on WordPress.org.

Ranjitha I work as a Web Developer and have recently started exploring and working on WordPress. I find it very exciting as there are plenty of tutorials, howto guides and help available for WordPress newbies and I never feel lost.

I also realized how big the economy around WordPress had grown. I want to know even the minute details of how WordPress works and want to become an expert in Plugin development and want to create and release my own plugins in near future.

Shilpa To say that WordPress has played a huge role , is an understatement, to say the least. It’s been absolutely fantastic – the whole being-part-of-a-community-feeling is something I have never experienced before , in any other platform that I have worked with.

Do you think the community treats you differently because you are a woman, for good or for worse?

Priya Not really. I do think we get some advantages as a result of being women (like being featured in a post on women in WordPress 🙂 ) but otherwise I think we get treated like any other professional.

Juhi I don’t think so. Why they should treat us differently? I have always been against of reservation. People should be treated on the basis of their skills not on the basis of gender, race etc.

Sheeba I have not felt nor sensed any discrimination which is another reason probably for me feeling more comfortable with this community. The community has been very supportive  & cooperative towards everyone approaching them.  As a women, I found community treating all equally and with respect and I found the overall setup and approach flexible.

Nisha I have not felt any difference because of my gender and I hope that community does not treat people differently based on gender or race.

Ranjitha As I have just started with WordPress, I do not have any direct experiences of same. This is one of the main reasons I want to be part of WordCamp Pune and want to Volunteer to interact with other WordPress community members in Pune.

What I feel is, regardless of the gender, people want to work with someone they enjoy being around. Luckily, I have never been treated differently just because I am a woman.

Shilpa If there are any women out there who might have faced discrimination , my heart goes out to them. I consider myself blessed to have been brought up to expect no special favours or tolerate any discrimination, by virtue of being a woman.

Does WordPress hold any special value for women?

Priya Only in the sense that it makes it easier for women who write blogs to express themselves. Also for women entrepreneurs to set up websites at a low cost. Otherwise I don’t think it holds special value to women or men.

Juhi No, I don’t think so.

Sheeba No, in my opinion, there is no need for it to hold any special value for women. We are just developers, quality analysts etc and I am happy it is this way. We don’t want to feel inferior by this treatment.

Nisha For me WordPress is special because I started my web journey with WordPress, I am not sure about women in general.

Ranjitha WordPress being a very easy to use CMS allows all women including professionals employed across different industries, work from home Moms, hobbyist etc find it really easy to use WordPress and start a blog & their own website.

WordPress.com is a great platform for new users to get started and then move onto their own websites when they are ready and confident.

Shilpa Does it hold any special value for men?

WordPress is an entrepreneur’s dream, both when they use it for their business and when they use it as their business. WordPress offers both a lucrative and an ethical business environment that new India needs desperately. That’s why we caught hold of six CEOs who use WordPress as or for their business and asked them three questions!

What role does WordPress play in your organisation?

Arun We are a media network company that operates five different portals; all of them run on WordPress. So needless to say, it plays a pivotal role in our organisation. WordPress is the foundation on which we build our castles on!

Amit Since 2010, WPoets has been providing services and solutions exclusively around WordPress.

Premanshu We design and develop websites using WordPress as a CMS. As most of our clients are SMEs and MSMEs, using WordPress allows us to provide them with many features and be cost effective at the same time.

Preetinder WordPress is an important part of our service offerings in Design & Development of websites and applications to clients across the world. We have been using WordPress for about 7 years and have built several web applications, business directory solutions, college / university websites and personal blogs.

Rahul In a way the inception of rtCamp started thanks to WordPress. I started blogging on WordPress in 2007, developed first plugin in 2008, started one of the first WordPress-only consultancy company in 2009.

Year after year, WordPress has made it bigger and better for us. 🙂

Karthik A major part of our revenue comes from selling WP related products (themes, plugins) and services (support, hosting). We use WP based websites for almost everything in our company. Also, all of our inbound marketing leads are generated from blogs that are run on WP

What is the one most important quality of WordPress that makes it great for your business?

Arun It is the extensibility of WordPress that appeals to us most. WordPress started as a blog platform, but today WordPress can be anything you want to it to be. It can be a community portal, a forum, an ecommerce site, a video site, a document management system or anything for that matter. When you couple this with a large passionate community, WordPress becomes a unbeatable proposition. That’s what we love about WordPress

Amit One of the primary reason is that it is the easiest CMS to work with, both for a user as well as a developer. Community support around the project is also very good compared to many other similar open source CMSes.

Premanshu One. You are kidding, Right ! The constant innovation, vast, helping community, huge number of contributors, the freedom to use/modify those contributions, ease of use, low learning curve for new users, built-in functionality to mange content… I can actually go on and on talking about why WordPress plays the central role in making our average business, a great business.

Preetinder The most important quality is its ease of use and its wide spread use among technical and non-technical users. This allows us to cut down our training time considerably, which otherwise we would have to spend on creating documentation and presentations on using any custom built system.

Other important factors are its vast and supportive user community and plugin ecosystem which easily allows you to find a plugin or theme for almost every use case / situation.

Rahul We never thought about it when we started with WordPress. I was a student in 2007 and started blogging with WordPress first. I loved the platform and just went on exploring it further. In fact I learned PHP and proper web development only after I started using WordPress.

But when I look back, I think I enjoyed being part of WordPress community. You never felt alone when working on WordPress.

So single most important quality of WordPress is the large and active community WordPress s!

Karthik Plugins and themes are available from thousands of premium providers. This brings down the cost of deploying solutions based on WP. Also, the large following and adoption by the developer, blogger and business communities creates a strong demand for WP based services and products!

Is it a good idea to start a new business revolving around WordPress?

Arun Yes, WordPress is growing and it will keep growing. The potential is immense!

Amit Absolutely! Popularity of WordPress is increasing day by day and WordPress already powers 23.3% of the top 10 million websites. WordPress is now being used more like a PHP framework, and that has opened the room for many more useful solutions.

Premanshu If I were doing business on any other platform, I would have said NO, because we don’t want competition 🙂 But that’s the beauty of WordPress! The more businesses start revolving around WordPress, the better it gets for us all. From profitability point of view, working with WordPress is highly recommended since there are a lot of resources already available and the ROI is great. So yes it is absolutely a good idea to start a new business with WordPress at its core.

Preetinder Yes, absolutely. Apart from the lucrative services business of creating and maintaining WordPress websites for clients, WordPress serves a good example of a great ecosystem for creating a product to support a niche or generic requirements. We have already seen several success stories of plugins, themes and complete businesses built around WordPress. WooCommerce, ElegantThemes, Appthemes, WPCurve are good case studies.

We, ourselves, are working on a new business idea around WordPress which is currently in beta/invite-only mode.

Rahul Of course, yes! WordPress powers every 4th site in the world. If you consider only the CMS market share, it’s every 2nd website.

This is a very large market to target, for both a product company or a consultancy!

Apart from typical product and consultancy companies, WordPress has specialised hosting, security and all kind of other focused businesses.

Karthik Yes, as with any business, it is good to start in a space where there is a strong demand. Right now there is very strong demand for WP products and services. For a small business, WP is a great place to start.

Though there is high demand, the barrier to entry is very low, so you have to quickly differentiate, else growth will be difficult. Once you find a niche to build presence in, there is a lot of potential to grow.

Remote working looks like an exciting life in pyjamas! Since WordCamp Pune has a lot of remote workers involved with it in various roles, we got six of them to give us some insight into the whole work-from-home scenario. We asked all six the same questions:

How important is remote-working and why?

Joe Working remotely is one of my highest priorities when considering work.

First, the freedom is incredible. With remote work I can travel and see the world and my family and friends while continuing to work. It helps me clock quite a few hours a week and still feel like I’m always on vacation.

Second, this allows me to take advantage of exchange rates and differences in cost of living to get more out of my paycheck. This is a free earnings multiplier that affords me a lifestyle out of reach if I were to be living in the places where my employers are based.

Finally, you’re no longer limited to your local job market. You can apply for and seek jobs in countries all over the world, even piecing together part time work from different continents.

Sudar Remote working has become an integral part of my life and is very important for me. Remote working gives me the freedom to choose where, when and how I work.

Akshay Personally, remote working provides all the necessary flexibility to organize work based on your priorities. Other benefit of a remote organization as compared to traditional brick and mortar offices is cross timezone availability. We are a global team of 3-4 people across contrasting timezones and hence at are able to complement each other’s availability very well working remotely. This is quite difficult to achieve otherwise.

Umesh No more commuting in early morning traffic, better Pay Scale, more work responsibility, flexible work hours which further leads to better productivity, flexible leave policy.

Joshua Remote working is great. It gives you control over your work schedule, the way you work, and the environment that you work in.

Harshad Where you are located is of little importance in today’s connected workplace as long as you fit into the overall scheme of things at the company and contribute effectively to the brand’s growth.

It’s always been a dream of mine to set my own schedule, and working from home gives me the perfect opportunity to do just that. The only commute I worry about is the small walk from my bed to the computer desk and I consider that to be awesome. Your home is powerful in the fact that it’s a familiar place where you can shut the door and really focus. Also, working from home gives you the opportunity to step away and clear your mind with other activities when necessary. Just don’t get distracted!

What is the most important benefit of a remote job according to you?

Joe My answer to the last question covers this, I guess.

Sudar The single most important benefit for me is that I get to spent more time with my family, especially with my 2 year old son. Apart from that I don’t have to waste time in traffic and “wear pants” 😉

Akshay Same as the last answer of mine.

Umesh I can pursue my hobbies, as the work time is flexible. Like, I’ve been going for hiking, more frequently and I plan to indulge more in it.

Joshua It allows you to do things you love, more often, without the need to take a break from work. This keeps you a lot more happier and in turn makes you a lot more productive.

Harshad I highly recommend working remotely; it gives you so much freedom to manage your time. It doesn’t just offer benefits, you earn more money than in your country, you manage your time efficiently, you save money, and the most important of all, you get to spend time with your loved ones.

Is it difficult to switch from a regular workplace to a remote workplace?

Joe The hard part is developing a routine and to finding a place conducive to productivity. Everyone is different – for me, I love working in cafes. I can’t work effectively at home and I dislike coworking spaces. I know others who work remotely that prefer working from home or coworking spaces.

The key is to experiment and find what works for you.

Sudar In the beginning it may be slightly difficult, especially when people might assume that you are free when you are at home. But once you set the proper expectations with your family and people around, it would become easy. Also once you are used to remote working it is like taking the “red pill”. There is no going back 🙂

Akshay I would not be able to comment on this as I part time remote along with my regular job. Not really a major switch for me.

Umesh It isn’t. It does takes around a month or so, to get used to the work schedule, you don’t have to wake up early and get ready for office, and since you are not staying with family, you’ve to make food arrangements and there are few other needs, which you’ve to take care of.

But sooner, if the schedule is not strict, maintaining the flow gets tougher, specially if you are staying at same place 24 * 7 for work and everything else.

The most important need I feel personally is, you need to keep in touch with people you know already, and keep looking for ways to meet new people as there is no workplace anymore.

Keeping the pace and all things together is more important than the initial switch.

Joshua At first it does seem a bit difficult to stay focussed and disciplined, but eventually you get used to it and start enjoying the benefits it has to offer.

Harshad Once you decide to change the way you work and don’t go to an office anymore, you have to organize your time and activities carefully, If you organize your time and activities carefully, I don’t think it would be much difficult to fit yourself in the remote work model.

So it looks like, remote working has a couple of hiccups when you start out. Howver, if you focus a bit and get a hang of what works for you, remote working seems to be most attractive, lucrative option available! All six of them have described the freedom with such glee, we guess remoe working is an option you must consider! Catch hold of a remote worker at WordCamp Pune (there are way more of them than the six here) and find out if it can interest you!

WordCamp Pune has a lot of former or current teachers involved with it in various roles. We caught six of them for a quick interview to see how WordPress and education mix together. We asked all six the same questions:

How does your experience in teaching help with your WordPress career?

Puneet It helps me in two ways – training clients and being prepared for the most common questions that are asked by newbies. While building websites, we focus on simplifying the WP admin and limiting access to only usable features which are essential for them.

Topher A passion for teaching requires me to teach. It can’t be helped. Because of this I get to meet may people who want to learn. Community is very important to a career in WordPress, and knowing many people helps this greatly.

Priyanka When you speak about things you know and have already done, it increases confidence and then you can explain things better. It also helps when I am conducting theme building workshops for students.

Saurabh I learn way more when I teach. If I can think of 10 questions when I learn, 10 students can think of 100 when I teach — potentially 110 new things to learn. That’s a 1000% increase in learning!

Jitesh Half the work in any field involves educating your customers. My teaching experience helps a lot when I have to explain things like design, seo, content marketing etc. to my customers.

Mahangu My teaching background makes it possible for me to quickly see things from the point of view of the learner/user. This is easier said than done at times, and I am very thankful for this skill.

What is the one most important thing that WordPress can do in a school?

Puneet It can take education to the next level. Students can start a blog, start sharing their ideas, questions, solutions and easily get involved with other students and teachers around the globe. An intranet school community can be a great way to encourage discussions.

Priyanka Introduce students to blogging and sharing so they may become entrepreneurs from school itself.

Topher Provide for two paths of interest. One is WordPress and Web development in general, but the other is equally important and involves making WordPress get out of the way, and that’s Writing. For the student passionate about writing and creating WordPress is a wonderful thing.

Saurabh WordPress can be a great gateway drug to open source and the hacker ethic. Not only our software tools but our politics, culture and society also need some grand hacks. Who else will change the world but youth raised on a healthy diet of freedom of expression and the most popular open source and democratic publishing system in the world!

Jitesh Schools in India are kind of closed. Generally all kinds of decisions are made by the school authorities and students follow. WordPress can make schools open, involved and engaging.

Mahangu As a language teacher, I found that WordPress was a great way to get students to create and collaborate online while organically developing their writing skills. Even in its plain vanilla form (without any fancy plugins!), WordPress can be an excellent language teaching tool.

However, the most important thing WordPress can do in a school is be whatever the school wants it to be, while protecting the freedoms of all those involved.

Is building educational products with WordPress good business?

Puneet It sure is. As LMS plugins are gaining popularity in the market, there’s a massive room for improvement. We need some systems which can work for “indian” users as our educational system follows a different approach.

Priyanka Yes! (my second answer supports this one)

Topher Absolutely. I know people making administrative tools for teachers and staff and also people making it easy for students to create content on the web. The field is practically limitless.

Saurabh There’s so much content flying around in wads of paper called textbooks, notebooks, files, registers and concepts like assignments, homework, etc. All that can be fit into WordPress for a start!

Jitesh Sure it is. There are tons of websites selling courses our giving them away for free and make money on certification our sponsorship. It all depends on how you plan, build and market your product.

Mahangu Absolutely! 🙂 Web based education is obviously a huge industry that will continue to grow rapidly over the next few decades, and I think that WordPress solutions done right could really take off.

WordPress and teaching mix very well, it seems. So why not gather a couple of people around and share your knowledge of WordPress; it’ll only boost your career! The consensus seems to be that WordPress in schools is a great idea and that WordPress based educational products have great business potential. We only hope that the educationists and some of the businessmen amongst us have already started thinking on these lines!