It’s been a year plus one day since I graduated from the University of Wisconsin, which means I’ve been working at Automattic for exactly a year.

In the past year, I’ve seen whales in Boston, palm trees in Santa Cruz, dolphins in Key West, and a sun rise in Napa.

Whale!

A post shared by Josh Betz (@jshbz) on

Good morning Santa Cruz

A post shared by Josh Betz (@jshbz) on

A post shared by Josh Betz (@jshbz) on

Stayed up for the sunrise. #wpvip

A post shared by Josh Betz (@jshbz) on

I’ve also had the chance to work with the best people, coolest clients, and interesting projects I could have hoped for in my first year out of school. I interned at Automattic the summer before my final year of school. I wanted to work here for a long time before that, but after meeting the people I would work with, I didn’t want to work anywhere else. I’m proud of the work we do, contributing to the WordPress community, our open source code, but it’s the people that really make it a great company.

I’ve been able to do all of this without moving away from my friends, family, and the best place in the world that’s buried by snow for 5 months every year.

If we can't get a snow storm to cancel finals, I guess 75 and sunny on Bascom will do.

A post shared by Josh Betz (@jshbz) on

#onwisconsin

A post shared by Josh Betz (@jshbz) on

At least the snow looks nice.

A post shared by Josh Betz (@jshbz) on

This weekend at the 2014 UW graduation, I was reminded how I felt a year ago — proud of what I had accomplished and where I was going. We get better at what we do every day and I’m just as proud to work here today as I was then.

Also, we’re hiring. 🙂