I'm starting a new role at Roofr on Monday! Well, technically I already started the role Monday of this week, but one of the benefits of working at Roofr is that your first with is always a PTO week!

I'm going to continue my work as a Quality Engineer with them and I'm joining a team of a few others (sorry, I haven't really met any of my teammates yet – only the folks I've spoken to during the hiring process – so I'll reserve my gushing over how awesome my team is for a future post).

Excited for this next chapter! I'm going to continue my work with the folks at Playlab on a part-time advisory basis for now too!

Our final stop in France was Toulouse. The vibe of this city felt much different than the others – way more modern and "city-like" than even Paris itself (maybe it was just the contrast, arriving after Avignon?). We were only in Toulouse for a single night, but the highlights for use were the hotel (best bed/most comfortable room of the trip) and the meals we ate (lunches at a great restaurant serving French food and dinner at an Italian restaurant with one of the top 3 pizzas I've ever had in my life).

The return trip from Toulouse to Paris was an adventure as well. What was scheduled to be a 5 hour train trip stretched in to a 10+ hour train trip as there was some type of electrical problem ahead of us on the tracks. While the original plan was to get back to Paris the night before our flight, and to sleep/freshen up, we ended up having to go directly to CDG and check in for our flight home.

Avignon was stop number 3, and by far our favourite place to visit in France. We stayed within the old city, and spent the vast majority of our time wandering the streets and enjoying the sights of the city.

The only disappointing part was that Avignon had some kind of art installation going on throughout the city and in several historic places. We spent a morning in the Popes Palace, but neither of us took many pictures because the rooms were all filled with these ugly coloured spheres. Sure, a stark contrast between the historical setting and the modern art... but it really just ruined the experience.

We'll definitely be returning for a longer stay in the future, and hopefully can experience some of these places without the primary colour assault on our senses.

Stop number two, we had a great time exploring the old city and enjoying a traditional Lyonnaise Bouchon for lunch.

The first stop in our 10 day adventure in France, Paris didn't disappoint. We hit on a number of the big tourist sites, and managed to get in to see the Louvre the day before the robbery! If we had planned our visit a day later, we would have missed out on the opportunity.

Paris was beautiful and the metro was all we needed for transport. Lovely cafés, restaurants and sights!

We got back from dropping Parker off at University yesterday, and I think we must have been cursed on this trip. we planned to drive out to Calgary over two days, stopping in Kamloops for the night. The first day went okay; we made it to Kamloops. The motel I had booked for the night was fine aside from the extremely loud air conditioner.

Trouble started on day 2. We set out and got stuck on the highway outside of Revelstoke. A semi got into an accident that shut down the highway for 6+ hours. While we originally planned to get in to Calgary around dinner time, we instead arrived around one AM.

Slower start the next day and got up to Edmonton around noon. Much shopping and organizing, then made it to the hotel to collapse around 10:30. Not the best sleep there either and then wrap up in Edmonton and back to Calgary the next day.

On Friday, we planned to one-shot it back to the coast, but yet another shut down on the highway delayed us enough that we missed our ferry reservation.

We stayed in the worst place in Abbotsford for the night, but didn’t have a lot of options on a long weekend at the last minute.

Needless to say, incredibly happy to be home.

It was time for a quick getaway with Amy. We headed out to Kelowna to enjoy some wine, food and exploring for a few days.

Update: Figured it out!

I was self-hosting the first iteration of this, but my home internet connection has proven less than reliable. My old posts haven't transferred over (I'll have to figure out how to migrate them). For now, here's the bare-bones version!

It's time to make it blog official! For just over a week, I've been working with the fine folks at PlayLab. They reached out to me after I posted to LinkedIn that I had left Automattic looking for some help getting their quality practices in order. It's a great role as it feels familiar – working for a small startup again and getting to have a real impact, but also different because this is the first role since the early days at Harvest where I am the quality person instead of being part of a team (the engineering team is pretty great though!)

PlayLab is a small team that lets students and educators create AI applications for their needs. Joining the team there feels a bit like a homecoming – I started my career working in educational technology at the University of Lethbridge. Working for an ed tech startup feels really familiar and getting to jump in with both feet into the world of AI has been challenging and exciting!

Now that I've had the chance to dig in a bit, I'm excited for what's ahead. The existing test suite is in pretty good shape (but I can make it even better!) and setting up the processes is going to be fun.

I feel like Automattic is far enough behind me that I can write a proper farewell post now. I was at Automattic, in WooCommerce for 3.5 years. That isn't an insignificant amount of time, but also doesn't come close to my longest tenure. A lot of my former colleagues are feeling betrayed and wronged by how things transpired. Maybe I'm just numb to "businesses doing what businesses do", or maybe I saw the writing on the wall and so I was less surprised when the layoff hit. Regardless, I don't have any hurt feelings from the whole episode.

How the layoff was handled was extremely insensitive, I will agree with that. For me, it was about 10:30am. I had a 1:1 scheduled with my lead set to start in a half hour. I was just preparing my notes on where I was at with my current project when my access to Slack disconnected. At that time, I noticed an email in my inbox with the subject line "Important Update Regarding Your Role at Automattic". Wow. Then the flurry of WhatsApp messages started because my entire team had been shown the door.

Automattic is a unique place. Leaving made me reflect on everything there from the hiring process (I didn't actually speak to another person until after I landed the job) to the completely remote-first culture. I've worked for other remote companies before, but Automattic really got it right in how they handled remote engagement. I'll probably write a post elaborating on that at some point, but the regular team meetups and autonomy to self-plan those always struck me as something really special.

But ultimately, the best part of my time at Automattic was the people. I worked on a team of very smart, very skilled quality engineers. My lead(s) were exceptional – they all modelled true leadership and helped us show up and contribute in the best ways possible. I'm proud of the work we did, and I know that I'm leaving a lasting legacy at Automattic. Things are a bit better now than when I first got there. I'm proud of that.

I'm nervous about what's next, but I'm also excited. I'm leaving Automattic with my head held high and with a confidence that I can tackle a range of challenges ahead of me. I've been applying to roles, having some great conversations with people working on really interesting projects and really asking myself "where can I make a big impact?" I think that might be my guiding question from now on. If I get to a point in a job where I ask where I can make a big impact, and the answer is "nowhere" then it will be time to move on.

Automattic was a great experience. The company culture when I joined was exemplary (there were some definite concerns recently). I value my time there, and I'm excited for the future!