My first exposure to technology and WordPress
In 2011, I was a UI Designer for a US-based technology company. My responsibility included designing our company’s website and creating static HTML pages from my designs. With these fixed static sites, any adjustments, even if it’s changing the same menu across ten pages, I’ll have to modify it page by page. This process is extremely cumbersome and inconvenient.
However, while I was building a website for my friend, I accidentally discovered WordPress. This content management system is the solution that I have been dreaming of! My excitement kept me up for several nights as I continued exploring and testing this newfound tool. Finally, I was able to create a website without any code that was easy to update and provided interactive elements for my visitors. Being able to create a website by myself in just a few days – bringing my vision to life – it was an unforgettable and precious feeling.
Growing up and how I became a developer
In college, I majored in tourism and originally planned to become a flight attendant. However, during my senior year, a computer elective course changed my life. This course required us to use FrontPage to build a website. This task ignited my passion for web design, and thus began my self-learning journey.
I subsequently devoted a lot of time to reading books and creating many websites, which eventually led me to study in the United States.
I first obtained a master's degree in interactive design from Savannah College of Art and Design and worked as a web designer for several technology companies in the United States. These experiences not only helped me accumulate a strong foundation in design, but it also gave me valuable experience in working with engineers, which laid a good foundation for my future usage of WordPress.
My journey as a female member of the WordPress community
Shortly after I returned to Taiwan to work in 2012, I was going to have a child. At that time, I chose to take unpaid leave to concentrate on giving birth. However, this decision unexpectedly started my entrepreneurial journey for more than ten years, and I never returned to a traditional workplace.
Initially, I built a website for my wedding photographer using WordPress. As word of mouth spread, I built hundreds of websites for clients within six years. In 2018, I started running my own blog WPointer, specializing in easy-to-understand WordPress tutorials, hoping to introduce more people to WordPress – a tool that would help one to build a website easily.
This journey has allowed me to turn my hobby into a career, which has brought me a stable income. Thanks to the flexibility of working from home, I have successfully balanced my career and family life. Being able to personally accompany my children as they grow up is what I feel most fortunate and satisfied about.
Hopes for my future and the WordPress community
Although Taiwan's WordPress community has grown continuously in recent years and has successfully held many medium to large-scale WordCamp events, the number of members of Taiwan's largest Facebook community still does not exceed 40,000. I hope to continue creating more tutorials suitable for WordPress beginners, and at the same time attract people from different industries and ages through more diverse media, so that more people can experience the power of using WordPress.
In addition, I also plan to develop a series of advanced WordPress courses to help interested learners deeply understand the diverse scalability of WordPress and use various plug-ins to enrich and expand their business.
My advice to women looking to work in tech
If you are eager to have flexible working hours and want to take care of your family and career at the same time, consider starting a business with WordPress! With WordPress, even if you don’t know programming or design, you can still easily create diverse websites through various themes and plug-ins to start your online career journey.
Compared to traditional entrepreneurship, the technical requirement and cost of setting up a WordPress website are relatively lower. If you keep an open mind, continue to acquire new knowledge, and actively participate in various tech communities, you will be pleasantly surprised to find many women like you who are also using WordPress to start a business and working hard to find work-life balance. As women, we should encourage and support one another. Such unity is very powerful and valuable.
第一次接觸一般技術/WordPress
2011年時，我是美國一家科技公司的UI Designer，主要負責設計網站的外觀，並將這些設計轉化為靜態HTML網頁。這些靜態頁面的內容是固定的，即使十個網頁都共用相同的主選單，每當需要調整時，我也必須逐頁分別修改，這過程極其繁瑣不便。
然而，一次為朋友私下製作網站的過程中，我意外地發現了WordPress這個內容管理系統，這發現就像是我夢寐以求的解決方案！我連續幾天都因興奮難以入眠，不斷地探索和嘗試。最終，我竟然在短短幾天內，僅憑一己之力，無需編寫任何程式碼，就創建了一個易於更新內容且能與訪客互動的網站！這就像賦予一隻紙貓咪以靈魂，讓它變得栩栩如生。那時的感動，是我一生中難以忘懷的珍貴時刻。
成長經歷以及如何成為開發人員
在大學時，我主修觀光系，原本計劃將來成為一名空姐。然而，在大四的時候，一門電腦選修課程改變了我的人生。這門課要求我們使用FrontPage來建立一個網站，這項任務點燃了我對網頁設計的熱情，就此開始了自學之旅。
隨後，我投入大量時間閱讀相關書籍並創作了許多網站作品，這最終促使我前往美國深造。我先在Savannah College of Art and Design 取得互動設計系的碩士學位，並且在美國幾家科技公司擔任網頁設計師。這些經驗不僅為我累積了堅實的設計基礎，也讓我獲得了與工程師合作的寶貴經驗，為我日後使用WordPress奠定了良好的基礎。
作為 WordPress 女性群體成員的旅程和經歷
2012年回台工作不久後，我便面臨了生育的重大決定。當時，我選擇了先留職停薪專心待產。沒想到，這個決定意外的開啟了我超過十年的創業之路，我再也沒有回到傳統職場工作。
起初，我用WordPress幫我的婚禮攝影師建立了網站。隨著口碑的傳播，我在六年內為上百位客戶建立了網站。到了2018年，我開始經營自己的部落格「網站帶路姬」，專門撰寫淺顯易懂的WordPress教學，希望引導更多人認識這個方便的架站工具。
這段旅程讓我把興趣變成事業，帶來了穩定的收入，並因在家工作的靈活性，成功平衡了事業和家庭生活，能夠親自陪伴孩子成長，是我感到最幸運和滿足的事。
對自己與WP群體未來的希望和夢想
近年來，台灣的WordPress社群雖然不斷壯大，且成功舉辦了多次中至大型的WordCamp活動，但台灣最大的Facebook社團成員數仍未超過四萬人。面對這一現狀，我期望能夠持續創作更多適合WordPress初學者的教程，同時透過更多樣化的媒介，吸引來自不同行業、不同年齡層的人士，讓更多人體驗到使用WordPress的樂趣。
此外，我也計畫開發一系列的進階WordPress課程，幫助大家深入了解WordPress的多樣擴展性，並學會運用各種外掛來豐富和拓展自己的事業版圖。
對希望從事科技業的女性的建議
如果你渴望擁有靈活的工作時間，希望能同時兼顧家庭與事業，那麼建議你考慮使用WordPress來創業！WordPress的優勢在於，即使不懂程式與設計，你仍可以透過各種佈景主題和外掛輕鬆建立多樣化的網站，開啟你的網路事業之旅。相較於傳統創業，WordPress架站的技術要求和成本都相對較低。只要你保持開放的心態，持續學習新知，並積極參與相關社群，你會驚喜地發現，許多如你一般的女性也在使用WordPress創業。她們都在努力尋找工作與生活的平衡點。身為女性，我們可以相互鼓勵、支持，這樣的團結力量是非常巨大且寶貴的。
