Hi there my name's Nick Sutherland, and this is my life channel this week we are going to talk about my previous job experience.
So I Applied for a company called Shopify
Which for you who are unfamiliar with what it is. It's an e-commerce platform online was found in Ottawa, Canada and
Serves most of the world now one of the biggest e-commerce platforms
I personally found Shopify back in 2013 or 2012
when I first started my first business I
Was looking around for different?
Ecommerce platforms, and I came across Shopify, and haven't lost it since
Just to explain how it works is you apply for your job, so you give your usual resume cover letter
They had thrown a little trick in there to see if how detail-oriented. You are so going all that actually got a offer
For a life story, which is just an interview with
An actual person so they talked about you know who you are as person. What's your experience?
They really do like unique people people who have e-commerce
Expertise any entrepreneurship obviously, I've been using the platform for a long time
So they did appreciate that and then took about another five days or so before I got
What they call the gauntlet which is kind of throwing you on a mock job to see how well you'd perform?
And I actually do that
maybe way across Ontario so I was at an Airbnb and sat down with really terrible internet and
did the entire gaunt when I did really well and
Again, I've been using the platform since at that point as three or four years using the platform
so I was pretty good at what at using the platform, so what I got when I did really well and
didn't hear back for
Another week or so and then I heard back when I hit Calgary I heard back there saying yeah, you have an interview tomorrow
Just was a final interview just get me into if I fit in properly then get me into the job
Did that in Calgary again the terrible internet really early in the morning?
And then didn't hear back for another week or so that was probably most frustrating part is after each one
They wouldn't tell you right away. It's understandable
They're a pretty big company, but I would expect you know a little better communication but again
They're big company no complaints go out to Whistler. That's where I live
And yeah, then you sent me a job offer
Which is awesome. They said congratulations. You got the job. He was starting training in three weeks
Everyone kinda starts off in the support area they all start off as a guru
Which is just like a frontline customer support text of work kind of situation and get to work from home which is awesome
So there's no offices. They have an office in San Francisco, Ottawa
Montreal Toronto Waterloo I
Think that's everything all of them, but everyone else from the remote team are across Canada in the Philippines
They're getting some new spots
I'm not sure if I'm the liberty to say where they are so I will keep that confidential so yeah
You work remotely I worked from my trailer in Whistler as long as you have fast enough in shit, but honestly
You don't need that good in shit. I had probably
15 to 20 down
Five up and I did fine
It was a little bit stressful during the training because you do video training through zoom or Skype or Google Hangouts
So you have a lot of people all in all in one room?
But once they actually get into guru position you actually don't need a lot of
Like bandwidth at all it's a pretty low bandwidth
You're mostly talking on VoIP answering emails and on live chats, which just don't take a lot
So the training it was I believe was four weeks of training or maybe even six weeks of training very extensive. You're working 40-hour weeks
You actually get your your full salary off the bat and some benefits off the bat. They do
Have good benefits. They pay alright
You start start your pay around forty thousand. That's where I started you do get promotions pretty quickly so within four months
I got a raise and they do definitely recognize people who work really hard, but
Yeah, so you spent I think this four 6pk. I can't quite remember training so your every single day. You're at your desk on video
Learning the internal tools they've learned the platform
and you're a group about ten fifteen people and today that's about four again five million dollars four to six weeks and
Then you're kind of thrown into the job
You do get at the end of the training you do get two weeks of just pure mentoring so you're two people with one
tenured guru and you
You work alongside them with real real shots
Just to kind of perfect what you weren't then you're just thrown in there
And I did honestly I sit for a guru. I did really well I had
the highest or second highest and my squad
so there's
To explain the squads there's about ten people per squad and with the squad lead so your supervisor
And then there's times time zones
There's a time leave for each time zone in Canada or overseas etc so my squad I was first or second the entire
Entire time I worked my ass off. I worked really hard for I do I do believe in high quality work
I run my own company on the side as well
and I would expect unless from my employees so I give the same to another company and
They didn't respect me for that. I got a raise fairly quickly and I was on track for a
Promotion I was looking at themed support tier two I was also looking at some
Dev team stuff as well as some biz ops
but ultimately
Yeah, I didn't get didn't end up getting there
For anyone who's applying and was watching this who's curious what your day-to-day is you have different timeslots
So I took the ten to six time slot, which is specific Center time where I am so 10 a.m.. To 6 p.m.. And
Your day to day
Looked you have half an hour thing of the day, which is jump off so some teams will have meetings
But we just answered emails and kind of caught up on a queue, or you know just getting ready for the day
And then you spend between 3 to 4 hours on other shots or phones have a half an hour lunch
And then the same thing you have other phones or chats for the afternoon
And then you have half an hour at the end the day to answer emails wind down and then get the head out now
Three times a week you have professional development time which is an hour
Professional development or training depends on you know what's going on. So there are a lot of training materials
You have to learn so that you did you designate some time to learn training and learning the new products excited that are coming out
But yeah, I mean then you have these professional develop times, so you can work on your own websites. You can learn the platform better
Develop your intellectual skills anything pretty much that builds you as a person you have that time
So I do I do give kudos to Shopify for keeping you know their staff mentally sane. It is a pretty high-stress job
You have a lot of people you have to answer to
When you're on chats you have three or four chats so three or four different people you're answering to and you also have to follow
Ups and escalations and answer emails, so there is a lot of work
It's pretty high pressure and they do expect a lot out of you and again like I did between
20 and 100 interactions a day depending on how fast you were and how busy our queues were
So I did very much appreciate those hours
the hour times
Because I needed it. I need that time to catch up my work
I need that time to kind of step away and take a deep breath, and then usually on Fridays Lucifer
Eyes are a squad we had a team time so it's a cert time to
communicate the team team builds
Family build a lot of fun stuff because everyone is working remotely right like I had tea
I had people from all over DC of people in Victoria, Kelowna, Vancouver, Whistler
So it's a good time to kind of you know build a family we build your team
Build your squad because you know your your
That's your team
That's people you're asking your questions the people you rely on if you have any issues are going to them first before you send it
up to
escalated support or themed support etc
So that was awesome
So you only really had one day a week that you didn't have an hour off or I stay off
But like an hour not on channels
Which is fine, so Thursdays, there's always like the highest rest days, and I hated those days
but Friday's were very relaxed because you know you had to jump off you only worked for a
bit in the morning had a lunch work for bit nastier than you had an hour and then then your
wrap-up time at the end the day so you had an hour and a half off in the day to actually kind of relax and
wind down
And talk about the week which is awesome
I did very much appreciate that so yeah, that's the day a day at least said I work at Shopify
You're expected to spend between six months is kind of where
You really fall into the role and figure it out and where I can start looking for promotions since it's such a fast growing company
It's a for an example. I was hired in
May or June of 2017 I think was the end of May
and by the time I left Shopify which was
March 2018
50% of the company was already hired after me so the company doubled in size
By the time I was done
I shall confine so that's how fast you're growing you're growing by like 400 people a month at one point
Which is huge for a small company?
So about after about six months you can start looking for promotions start looking for different jobs, so
Lift some lists time with the options at the top of my head you have themes support if you're good at themes
You have tier two which is a rescue lated support. You have shipping solutions financial solutions risk development
squad lead
There's so many of them you can go over dev team
But the one that I was really focusing on was squad Li because I already had a lot of management experience in the past
So it's really focusing on that
I took a quick look at team support
but there was a lot of it was kind of by the book and not being creative when I love being creative so
I kind of put push that off and then tier two was the other big one was looking at because I knew the platform
so well since I worked on it I
Did really want to kind of get into the servers?
And you know do the big problem solving because you know first first level support a lot. It's like
Oh, you know this isn't working
Why isn't working?
And you click a button that they didn't see and it works
So you have a lot of those a lot of walkthroughs of how the platform works
We're at tier 2 you get all the ones that people don't understand
So for example like it when I click the Add to Cart button like nothing happens
So you have to go in and see okay? What's the server error? That's happening? How do I fix it?
Where do I send it how do I fix it myself?
It's really interesting that on top of that tier 2 works 4 days a week 10 not 10 hour days
And I live in the beautiful British Columbia as you guys are seen or we're gonna see I love doing adventures
I love hiking so three days off isn't much better than two days off which brings me to the schedule rotations
So you're on a six or eight weeks schedule rotation, which means you have six weeks
Monday to Fridays and then two weeks
two or three or four weeks
I actually don't remember of off
Working weekends so for example you work Monday to Friday - Friday - Friday Monday to Friday, and then you have
I think it's Tuesday to Saturday, then you have sunday off Sunday Monday off, and then you work
Tuesday to Friday and have the new work Saturday Sunday
And then something like that it's kind of you may need people to work the weekend because you have 24/7 support
So you work to begin just for two or three weeks or maybe even even four weeks
And then you're back in your rotation same thing with the eight week rotation you hit the eight-week rotation
And then you have like two weeks or three weeks or four weeks of working a day or two days in the weekend depending on
the school
Which brings me to the cultures of shopify now everyone there is
Probably between 20 and 30 area or majority of the support staff leaves
I don't we definitely got a chance to meet a lot of the development teams or legal teams
But supports would be probably 20 or 30 area, so there is a bit of professionalism, but there's also a lot of
Young startup tech vibes a little bit a maturity
Very very laid-back kind of culture
Which is great like it's cool to see a company be so laid back yet so professional and so hyper efficient at what they do
However, if you're just a really professional person, and so he just likes to get shit done
Which is actually their motto? It's you know get shit done act like owner
Then it can be a little bit stressful
So I again like I said before I was one of the I was out of the first or second performer depending on the month
out of my ten people in my squad and by like that I mean I kicked everyone's butt like I was doing or me and
like one of my friends was doing
between
Double and triple what most people were doing so for example one month. I did 200 shots
50 calls and probably 200 emails where everyone else is doing like you know peaky chats
50 emails 50 calls so that can be a little bit frustrating
Applying for promotions it really does help to know people so this is such a young company and everyone. They're so young
There is a bit of a clique enos going on so if you know people get along with people
Kind of reach out to people and really focus on that
then you kind of have a better probability of
The at least four squad lead you have better probability of actually getting the job
So the other ones are not so much touching the newer teams
They kind of just take replies, but if you want to be a squad leader Shabbat, which is what I wanted to be
Especially because I had such a good experience, but I do enjoy managing people
My apply for squad lead twice the first time I applied I got to the first round got passed
So there's probably I think there was 30 applicants. They chose 20 for an interview, and then the next one
They chose was like 15 people and then the chosen lost person so I made the first round so I got chosen for an interview
Got the interview
And then it really gave me any feedback
They kind of just said you know story to get the job maybe work on being a better leader
Which is pretty frustrating for someone who you know I already run a remote team
I already run a company with staffing of six people right now
I
Do it very very well, and I have a really high performing team who respects me?
And you know they have no management whatsoever in their location. It's all done remotely, so that was kind of fresher
I didn't get much feedback, so I bummed me out for a while
But I still kick I still kick - I worked too hard, and then I applied for
Squad lead again, and I got same thing there was probably round 30 people
They chose 20 for interview
And I got to the interview and this time we had five people in food before it was just one person
But now we had five people in here there was
two squad leads
HR rep a time lead
Time needing training and I got a vibe from the time lead
That she just didn't like me. She just didn't have she didn't smile at me. She'd ask me questions
Just seemed gently pissed off me, and I was kind of unsure. Why because you know I am a pretty outgoing person
I work really hard. I keep out of trouble. I don't really communicate
Like bad things or anything. I'm a very positive vibe kind of person, and I really don't deal with gossip
I just kind of some German Switzerland
I just sit in the middle that kind of took me off-guard
But I still I did I think I did really really well
And they did one of the thyme leaves really did like me
It was kind of frustrating because you know I got a email back saying kind of similar thing like soy didn't get the job
But the difference is time it actually gave me a feedback interview
Or a feedback meeting, so I had a feedback meeting with the person who actually really liked me, and then she said yeah
I really liked you know were just looking for a little bit more Vista sin this I'm Teresa Civic
They're looking for a little bit more of what personality flexing, so I'm a very bubbly person
But they're kind of worried if someone wasn't so bubbly in the squad, then I wouldn't connect very well
so they want just to me to demonstrate that I that I could flex my personality to deal with that kind of
Management style and then they wanted me to get more management experience, which is very very fair within the company so
note-taking more my squad leaves on vacation take over as a POC or point of contact or
Which is like squad leave while they're gone
So I've already done a bunch of that and then I was set up to do a bunch more and I was offered by my
Squad lead to do some training
Which is awesome because that's a really good experience be a manager and shaped how that person is and then
In that once we got to like the training portion
I was in the training training is people and then I think I did a Monday to Friday one day Thursday
And then on Sunday night. I got a slack message from my squad lead saying
Next week you just gonna be on live channels. We took you off
of the training
So of course, I'm message back saying you know why would I take it off train did I do anything wrong?
And she said yeah, we'll talk tomorrow which was Monday, so yeah Monday comes around and at like 955
I got a slack message for my squad links lead saying
Yeah, we have a meeting at 10 o'clock
which is
Not enough not really enough notice for me because you know I sleep - 955 get up get out of bed then sit down 10
So I was a wreck so I scrambled to get up
Got out of bed got my camera set up in my desk. I usually have another monitor here and
Open my laptop jumped a meeting and it was
My boss - my boss's boss. I'm gonna start interrogating me saying
This is what those people said you were doing you showed up late for work that you're teaching the bad habits
You're teaching them how to skew stats which is complete utter bull
So to go by point by point so the first point with a gurus knew gurus ones that I was training
We're taught how to cheat the system and look like they're doing devil interactions by submitting chats open and then
Zendesk and intamin submitting them as a psalms so for those who don't respect that is we have a chat system
and he submitted a solves and
Immediately goes into Zendesk as a solved ticket for just a minute open it goes into Zenda Zendesk has an open ticket
And then he can solve it again
Well that doesn't count a double
Interaction all that does is it gives you time later on so you have two options you can do the notes
Inside the chat and then submitted solves, or you can just submit it open and do the notes later
I always did that because I was doing four chats you only required to do three chats um a time
But I was doing four chats at a time
So I didn't have time to go and do notes for each
Individual one so that I'll just omit them as open and then go back and insert them as solve both occur the notes in it
Doesn't count as two interactions that just kind of says one because you know the system is not stupid
So I kind of respond saying you know
It's definitely not true. That's complete bullsh. I don't see the stats go back and look at every single interaction
They'll match up with a chat not two so that was kind of put it on the bus
And then there's other ones saying that merchants frustrate me, and then you neglect them for waiting longer
Which is bullshit as well because what I do is if merchants frustrated
And what we're taught is like if merchants frustrated and let them vent for a bit
And then you come back and you answer them
So you know I'll go look the chat if we're still venting still typing cuz you see they're typing
I'll let them finish what they're saying and then I'll come back and answer once
They're done ranting because you can't cut off some when the ranting, otherwise they're just getting more mad
So I taught my guru as I was trained you know take the time take your time go to another chat
Answer the chat there and come back once there kind of finished up, or just don't rump and don't interrupt their
Their chat because it kisses people off and that pissed me off as well if I was frustrated
another point here
Merchants that were perceived as being frustrating. We're also being spoken to in an inappropriate manner
Which is true and that's that that one was the only valid one so when I get frustrated instead of taking our merchants?
I kind of just vocally say all this person's frustrating me
Maybe use a few swear words and then like joke around a bit especially if I love from if I'm live chatting with someone
Like one of my colleagues, I'll kind of joke around that way
But again that's not that's not customer oriented. That's how I do of my frustrations
I could be doing I could be putting on the customers or getting all closed down
That's how I stayed cool like I would do that and show my dog, and that would keep me calm
When I specifically said that to my the new guru is being trained saying this is how I deal with it
You'll find your way to deal with it
And then the second last point was neglected your colleagues by showing up late leaving early and not fostering an environment
Which they felt that they're comfortable asking questions?
Once again is bullying. I'll have a CCTV and my trailer, and I'll I told him unhappily share them showing that I
Didn't leave early. I never left early
I again like I employ staff remotely
And I put trust in them I I would expect the same out of myself so I always showed up on time never left early
I'm frequently left late, and I worked overtime
but I never left early and I said like you know what that's complete bull if you want all of sudden II the CCTV of
Me sitting at my desk
Not leave my trailer working my ass off and like it shows my stats right it shows how much I work it shows
How many more interactions per month I do BUTT STUFF over other gurus, so those are hardworking staff so again
I'm on this salary position
I want hourly as it is so
Like that really did frustrate me
The last point was we're used to trick the system and how to trick your SL to look good on paper, which is also again
You're this entire thing that's bull I taught them
That they should since they have a new SL coming in as well usually you have an SL a squad lead and usually they have
a tenured SL
Who they joined their squad but since we hired so much they had a new one as well so the head so I said hey
You know when you get to your squad make sure you know work your ass off
Ask as many questions that you as you can answer as many questions as you can keep your wrap-up times really short
And just do gently get do a good job, and your SL. Will love you
That's all I said that department and they just took that completely and a proportion
and
Pretty much. They said you know we're gonna throw in evaluate your employment at Shopify, which took me off-guard because again. I'm a heart
I'm a very high achiever. I work really hard. I train really well
I think I did a great job at training these guys the only thing that I messed up on is
I probably shouldn't have vocally got frustrated. I just kept that inside like I still do them like if I'm not on camera
But I should just shut up and not done. That's all like you know I told him that as well like you know
That's my fault my bad. It won't happen again. That's not like in my opinion
I don't think that's hey we're gonna get into your employment kind of thread and
Then I didn't hear much back
So I sent this big we talked we had a meeting in the entire meeting we talked about this
And then I sent a follow-up email just you know printing on the points voicing my concerns trying to prove
You know that this is all bullshit. I've been here back for a while, so I worked money to Friday
I think my cells on vacation in Ottawa and then on next Saturday
I got it. Cuz we worked that was the rear rotation so you worked on the Saturday
I got a message saying you know we're gonna have a meeting tomorrow ten o'clock
he'd be - that'd be awesome and
Yeah, so I same thing kind of you know scramble - my dad is go for my laptop
So yeah my SL got into the chat which was a zoom meeting and said hey, this is your HR rep
Marcus their name because I want to keep her name confidential and she's gonna
Talk to you about your employment
And then she left - I left and I was kind of like why would you?
just introduce it and leave cuz I already know my HR rep I've talked to her bunch and
Then the HR rep said yeah
We're we're gonna let you go without cause which in my opinion is bull because we happened sometime email thread saying you know
We're gonna consider your employment, and they just let me go that cause which was very frustrating like you know luckily
I got severance and all that so I cannot - bummed out and that's
But the fact that you know my ASL
Didn't say goodbye didn't give me an explanation didn't respond to my email just showed up said this is who's gonna fire you they
Remind me about my policies, and how I couldn't break my contract
I still had to keep my you know
confidential and all that
So I'm being very confident about this entire video because I can't share a lot of stuff that I that I know
But this is all public information every guru knows this
Really wasn't expecting to get fired over this it was not
Something that should have been fired of course. They have all the rights in the world to just let me go without without cause
But it's kind of a bummer because I was a really high performer in their company
I had raises I had great performance reviews. I was one of the top
I was like got the highest raise in my entire squad
I'm had the best first or second depending on the month of all my stats had a awesome review from merchants
I had between a 95 and a hundred percent rating and then they just let me go so obviously a little bummed out
But yeah, I did want to show you the entire experience start to finish of what it's like to work at Shopify
I'm the last thing you for I gotta let you guys. Go is. I want to talk about benefits
I get that question a lot is what kind of benefits to get Shopify and they do have good benefits
So I did have you know I started off with the $40,000 salary
And then you get around $50,000 with the benefits, so you have mostly cover dental
Prescriptions all that fun stuff so you
Have a good you have a good health plan, and then you get a $5,000 spending account, which you can put towards either
RRSPs to toward your retirement
Or as a spending account so you can spend this on anything that builds you as a person anything it builds your business
Anything along the lines of that you can buy like
Sporting equipment ski passes bus passes is anything like that which is awesome. I use a lot of that and
Then you got shopping Shopify for free which was awesome. I use that a lot, so yeah definitely good benefits
They flew you out or bust you out to a summit every year, so they didn't they again?
I don't want to trash Shopify it I still love Shopify still use Shopify
And I still recommend everyone to apply or be employed by Shopify. They are an awesome company, but I wanted to share my experience
It's my right to share my experience. I think should know my experience there, and how I was treated
I was treated very well up into that point, but there's something that I think that shouldn't have happened so yeah
I hope you enjoyed that I'm hoping something that informs you if you're looking to apply or in the
Application process for Shopify keep it in mind. Hopefully I cleave it on a positive note
I would always recommend someone to join Shopify. It is a very awesome company
They have awesome benefits awesome salary awesome people get to work from home
I work from my dog all the time. I could work anywhere in the world
That was awesome and again. I do not regret it. I would work there again if I could but obviously something happened
I'm not sure exactly what it was
But it was enough to let me go although cause if you are looking to join Shopify
I do have a referral link in the description below. Please use that it helps out. Helps me out
Helps out my channel if you need help building a Shopify store. I can develop your store again. I've been mad at Shopify Guru
I've been developing Shopify stores for 5 6 7 8 whatever years so if you help it back
Give me a shout my social medias below. Just give me a shout and I'll help you. Thanks for watching and how to do
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