When I completed the Happiness Trial, I was already a full-time employee at another company. Due to this, weekends were the only time I was able to dedicate the largest blocks of time. Through trial and error, I was able to come up with a plan that worked for me. I was able to keep up my responsibilities at my “day job” as well as put my best effort into the trial at Automattic.
Are you getting ready for a Happiness Engineer Trial? Here are my 4 tips for working the Happiness Engineer trial while also working a full-time job:
1
Much of your trial will take place during the week, but be sure to keep your weekends free (if possible) for independent work.
2
During weekdays, I first tried to work in small chunks of 2 hours and then 1 hour and so on in the evening after my day job, but found that this negatively impacted my productivity. My Trial Lead suggested working in blocks of 3-4 hours instead and that really made a difference. It helped me to feel more focused and less stressed.
3
When working on the trial after my day job, I felt braindead while chatting with users. So, I decided instead to get up early and work on chats with a fresh mind in the morning. And it worked!
4
The fact that I had only limited hours to work on trial (~3 hours per day on weekdays) meant that I had to bring in efficiency. Based on feedback from my lead, I learned to ask for help if I couldn’t find an answer within 5-7 minutes.
Pro-tip: Set a timer for 5 minutes every time you start working on a new ticket to keep tabs on your time.
These are just a few of the things I tried during my trial. I hope you find them helpful 🙂
Visit the Work with Us page to learn more about how you can apply to be a Happiness Engineer, too.
Happiness Everywhere 
Thanks for the tips @sandeepkaur. looking forward
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Thanks for sharing your trial journey!
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This was awesome to read! I am currently starting my third week of trial and I have found that juggling full time work, home life with kids, and the trial has been mind numbing and challenging. I appreciate your suggestions and am going to try to use them myself. Thank you!
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