Is Matt Mullenweg defending WordPress or sabotaging it?

Last year, I was contacted out of the blue by an Automattic recruiter who encouraged me to apply for an engineering position there. I was intrigued for a few minutes because I recognized the company and knew they did some really terrific open source work once upon a time.

But then I regained my senses... I don't have any kind of reputation or extensive proof of accomplishments or character outside of my resume and real-life social circle. Any company that would cold-contact someone like me is 100% dealing with either abnormally low offer acceptance or abnormally high employee turnover, or both. I also remember reading (on Reddit and such) from previous employees that the CEO was best described as "mercurial."

There were enough bright waving red flags that I did not bother to respond.

Groucho Marx for those that are interested.

The article update links to a Google Doc in which Matt takes issue with the following remark from the article: > he's a wealthy CEO of a for-profit corporation that is attacking a competitor

Matt responds: > WP Engine is a “competitor”, but so is every other web host in the world. Automattic and WordPress.org have had good relations with all the others for 21 years. WordPress.org recommends a number of hosts.

It seems Matt is forgetting his "friendly" spat with GoDaddy a few years ago.

Matt continues: > His criticism of certain practices focuses on maintaining the platform’s integrity and open-source commitment to ensure the community can grow further with sustainable investments.

Let's assume this is all true. It doesn't change the fact that he's attacking a direct competitor.

Matt continues: > Silver Lake is far wealthier than Matt or Automattic.

This is how you know that Matt wrote the response. It's the same ego defending behavior that he used when responding to DHH.

Matt is very, very bad at PR. It's really time he learns that and lets others take over those roles. And it's time he learns to shut up. He hurts more than he helps.

Automattic's recruitment process is also... "involved":

> Write a thoughtful cover letter, and thorough responses to application questions.

I've seen these kind of application questions before. These are not from Automattic but comparable to what I saw from them: "Describe in detail, including the metrics, KPIs and reasoning you used when you launched your previous 0 to 1 product to ensure a good fit to your customer", "Describe in detail the biggest challenge and obstacles you've overcome getting a product to market, including both the technical aspects and business/people components, and be specific about the role you played in making sure these were surmountable" and so on.

> a Slack interview

This is actually novel and kinda cool, especially when it's one of the primary ways you might communicate day-to-day.

> 30-60 minutes Zoom interview

> Code Test for engineers - We expect the code test will take no more than a couple of days, and this is done asynchronously over the course of approximately a week

That's starting to add up.

> Trial "can last anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. Most candidates complete the trial while working full-time and we know life is busy"

Better check your existing employment contract about moonlighting / outside employment (I am not saying I agree with such restrictions, but given how common they are, maybe this should be called out a little more....)