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Tijana Andrejic
In the interview, she mentioned that she has been a fitness trainer for so many years unless she found WordPress at the age of 35. Also stated that she is currently working as a Migration specialist. In free time she likes to run, exchange ideas, does exercise, and enjoy spending time with her pets.
Have been a fitness trainer for many years until I discovered WordPress at the age of 35. The next step for me was freelancing and after that I started working for an international hosting company as Customer Happiness Engineer.
Currently, I work at the same company, but as a Migration Specialist. The position change gave me the opportunity to deepen my technical knowledge.
In my free time, I like to run, exercise, and exchange ideas with my friends over the cup of coffee. And when I’m at home, I enjoy spending time with my pets.
Q. How did you come into your current field? Share a bit of the background?
Ans: Before I came across WordPress I wasn’t interested in tech-related jobs at all. I was really happy being a fitness trainer and changing peoples lives for the better.
However, in time, I felt the need to grow intellectually and learn something new. Also, since I’m an introverted person, I longed for a peaceful work environment.
My acquaintance, who is a theme developer, created a WordPress course and posted the announcement on Facebook. I contacted him, joined the course and my fitness career became history. I got hooked on WordPress.
Then I started freelancing. I was focused mainly on making websites for local clients and also on content writing jobs. When I gathered enough experience and courage, I applied for a position in an international hosting company that has an office in my hometown. I passed the tests and here I am.
Q. What’s the most interesting project you have done to date in WordPress?
Ans: The most interesting project to date was an online shop for cat products. Built with WordPress, of course. It was a dropshipping website that pulled products from another e-commerce platform.
I learned a lot about dropshipping while working on this. Plus I got the chance to check out the latest cat products on the market. It was fun for me since I’m a proud owner of five feline beauties.
Q. Have you ever been to any WordPress meetups or WordCamps? If yes did you learn anything useful?
Ans: I love these events and it makes me sad that everything is online now. It was much better when we had a chance to see each other in person. I volunteered in several WordCamps and spoke on a few meetups.
So far, the most memorable for me, were WordCamp Europe 2018 because it was in Belgrade (my hometown) and WordCamp Berlin 2019 because I adore Berlin.
I’ve learned a plethora of technIcal stuff during the last 4 years while being active in the community. However, the most valuable lesson for me was the one about the importance of giving back. That’s what keeps the community strong and all of us connected.
Q. What does your workstation look like?
Ans: I belIeve in simplicity. Therefore, my laptop is my workstation. Also, by being a nomad at heart, I like to move around the house a lot and to sit in different places.
I used to do that in the office as well. I didn’t like to keep anything on my office table (except for the bare minimum – in this case that would be a computer) and I liked to sit in other people’s spots when they are not around, so it was sometimes hard for colleagues to find me.
They had to ping me on Slack when they wanted to ask me something. When working at home, I prefer sitting in a lazy bag on my balcony and working with my laptop in my lap. I guess I took the term laptop too literally.
Q. What kind of tools/software do you currently use for your creations?
Ans: There are a few tools that I use on a daily basis. The most important one is my laptop MacBook Pro 15.
For file transfer, I use iTerm if SSH is enabled on the server-side and additionally CyberDuck and FileZilla. My code editor of choice is Sublime Text and for team communication I prefer Slack.
Q. What interesting feature do you think you would like to see in WordPress and is currently missing?
Ans: My main focus is usually on the technical performance of the website and content, while I often get stuck with the design part.
I can spend days thinking about which color scheme to use and which font combination is appropriate.
Therefore, it would be beneficial if some kind of “design helper” was built into WordPress. For example, it would be great if, when someone selects a font for headings, several suggestions for body fonts would pop up and vice versa.
Also, it would be really helpful if you could choose a main color for the website and a few color schemes were offered automatically. There are many color schemes available on the Internet, but it would be less time consuming if a few were available in the backend as well.
Q. Out of the current plugins and themes which one do you like the most and why?
Ans: I really like Yoast SEO. Although SEO is very complex and it requires diverse knowledge and tools, in my opinion, this plugin provides great guidelines for optimizing website content. Not only that the content will be optimized for search engines for specific keywords, but it will also be easier to read.
Therefore, it will be more popular among people, and as a consequence, the rankings will be additionally improved. Great plugin.
Q. Which WordPress hosting do you use and would you recommend for your clients and others?
Ans: Generally, for my needs, I prefer using Linux hosting with cPanel. When I was starting with WordPress and still learning the basics, cPanel was the first file manager I came across.
And I stayed loyal. As my knowledge expanded to more complex tools, I became accustomed to using Linux commands, to complete some tasks faster.
If I were to recommend a hosting to small business owners who have only one website, it would definitely be some kind of Managed WordPress hosting solution. This type of hosting comes with pre-installed WordPress and some other perks which are usually not available out of the box.
Q. Do you like/love what you currently do in WordPress?
Ans: Yes, of course! 🙂 Being a Migration Specialist provides me the opportunity to learn a lot both about WordPress and about different server setups.
Incompatibilities often occur when a website is moved into a new environment and fixing them is the challenging part of the job. For a curious person like me, every new issue opens a new branch of things to learn.
Q. What would you like to do in the future in the current field or somewhere else?
Ans: I would like to stay in WordPress related field because I really love WordPress! In the future, I will try to expand my knowledge about WordPress security and move my career in that direction.
I think that in the world there are three types of people – the ones that change it for the better, the ones that make it worse, and the ones that just stand by. And it is the same on the Internet. I want to go from a bystander to one of the good guys by helping people keep their websites safe.
If I had to choose a non-tech career, it would probably be either dog training or feline psychology.
Q. Can you give us some reference for whom we should conduct an interview next and why?
Ans: Predrag Zdravkovic – because of his interesting background and involvement in the community. He is a speech therapist by vocation and WordPress enthusiast by heart.
He was a speaker in several WordPress Meetups and his customer-oriented focus makes him a real gem in the Serbian WordPress community.
His knowledge extends from marketing, customer support, content writing, way to some more sophisticated skills. One that impresses me the most is the ease with which he is able to explain technical stuff to inexperienced people and to make the newbies eager to further learn WordPress and start off their path to success.
He is also a translation contributor and he has a great sense of humor.
Sonnal S Sinha is a passionate writer as well as WordPress and WooCommerce rockstar who loves to share insights on various topics through his engaging blog posts. He runs a successful website design and digital marketing company. With 15+ years of experience in WordPress theme development, he strives to inform and inspire readers with his thought-provoking content. He helps thousands of small and medium businesses and startups create a unique online presence. Follow Sonnal S Sinha for your regular dose of knowledge and inspiration.
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