Being a Magento Extrovert is Challenging - Interview With Rebecca L Troth

Rebecca has been a designer, developer, and a secret poet. She is famous for her love for Magento. She is the devoted and passionate member of Magento community and currently working as a Project Manager at iweb.

Today, we got the chance to interview her and talk to her about her experiences with Magento. So, let’s get started!

Arpatech: Rebecca, you are a young professional and Magento Specialist. Our readers want to know your motivation for choosing Magento Platform and working for Magento community.

Rebecca: I came across Magento very early on in my career which I am so glad about because it has meant I have been able to focus my efforts on what I believe to be the best eCommerce platform out there with the best community behind it! Sure Magento drew me in and I love working with it, but it’s the passion from the huge & amazing Magento community that has kept me here.

Arpatech: Rebecca, you are serving as a Project Manager at iWeb. I have been engaged with some courses of Project Management and I love this field. Please share your experience as a project Manager and delivering Magento solutions to clients. What are the most frequent concerns of client?

Rebecca: Many moons ago I was a developer at a smaller agency which didn’t have any Project Managers and so I had a very mixed role of managing the clients and projects as well as developing and building the sites. I attended a conference in 2014 called DPM:UK, recently rebranded to DeliverConf, and was truly inspired by the speakers and attendees there that were immersed in digital project management! So much so that I decided to focus and take on my current role as PM with the awesome team at iWeb. In terms of concerns I have, generally, I try to keep them to a minimum. The projects we take on are high pressure and mean so much to the clients involved that when things go wrong it can be hard not to take it personally, but you just have to pick yourself up and keep working hard!

Arpatech: As you say in your blog that you never heard of Magento before 2013. What took you to this platform? What was the motivation for choosing Magento as your career?

Rebecca: I have always had an interest in eCommerce but as a 20-year-old junior developer, I was just excited to be working on any web project and so being given the opportunity to work on large online shops using Magento was thrilling! I picked it up quickly and it wasn’t long before I was no longer considered junior. I have been just as passionate about the platform ever since and will continue to push its and my own development!

Arpatech: Rebecca, you are active Magento community member and run Magento YouTube Channel. Can you suggest newbie some tips to stay connected in this community? Is it really difficult to be part of the community?

Rebecca: My biggest tip would be to put yourself out there! I know it’s scary and difficult to do but the Magento community is a friendly one who are always looking for new talent! I recently wrote an article about my feelings when I was first joining the community and where I am now: Being a Magento extrovert is challenging. Just remember you are not alone and we all started as a stranger to each other. I still get nervous when interacting with the community, but my passion outweighs my fear (just about) so I will never let that stop me.

Arpatech: You are working as a project Manager and you are very close to Magento products. Many developers are still working on Magento 1 and most of them have not even thought of switching it. Why Magento 2 is still not famous among developers?

Rebecca: It is just not as well-polished as Magento 1 yet. Developers are having to learn on the job, are facing barriers and big changes with every new release, but officials at Magento are listening to the feedback from everyone using the platform and are pushing to improve the experience for developers. Unfortunately, it is just a waiting game at the moment and we are a little bit in limbo.

Arpatech: Being a Magento specialist, you love to write. Please guide our readers about the best practices of writing a blog.

Rebecca: Oh gosh! I do love to write but I am far from an expert and so all I can tell you is the approach I take and that is to be myself. I write my posts how I would say them, I use the same tone of voice and vocabulary as I do in my day to day life which I hope helps my writing come across more genuine. It seems to be working!

Arpatech: Let’s talk something about ecommerce store. We see a lot of competition in this sector. Please give some suggestion to our merchants on how to sell their first product online. What can they do to stand out of the cluttered online market?

Rebecca: It is such a competitive sector. Especially with the ease of getting set up online now, it is hard for even those in the business like myself to keep up! I would have to recommend not trying to go alone. The world wide web is a big place with experts on every niche you can think of! Rely on these experts to help you and learn from, be it for development, marketing, or customer service etc.

Social media is also a huge thing for businesses that I truly believe should not be ignored or taken for granted. No matter who your target market is, I can almost guarantee you they will be using social media in some way or another.

Arpatech: I searched for your interest in photography and found some amazing clicks. Your passion seems quite interesting. How did you start as a photographer? If you get a chance to choose photography as your career, what will you do? What else do you prefer in your spare time?

Rebecca: I have always loved being behind the camera rather than in front of it. I appreciate everything on this planet and believe everything and everyone is beautiful and that’s what I love to capture. I did do a college course on Film and Television production too, so when I think of the ways my career could have gone, I like to think I could have been a director on a big fancy movie set! Haha.