Hitchhiker Spotlight: Garrett Gomez

How long have you been on the Hitchhikers team?

~2 months

What projects have you worked on since joining the Hitchhikers team?

I've worked on implementing Answer Free Trials for a handful of clients, and my first client - Bright Now! Dental of Smile Brands Group - just went live!

Bright Now! Dental

What is your proudest accomplishment since joining the Hitchhikers team?

My proudest accomplishment came at the end of a kickoff call with a client, Waldorf Ford. They had a large team on the call, including marketers, IT, and stakeholders from the holding company, and when I turned it over to the main point of contact to see if they had any questions, he replied, "Frankly, Garrett, I think you did a great job presenting. You made everything really simple to understand which makes me optimistic about the rest of the implementation process." And yes, I did write that down immediately after we all hung up.

How has becoming an administrator/Hitchhiker affected your career?

Being a Hitchhiker has developed a whole new skill set for me that I know will boost my career. I consider myself much more technical now, as I've actually gotten my hands dirty with config files, Javascript, CSS, and HTML in ways I have never done before. I also have gotten a chance to speak with IT professionals and web developers at client companies around technical integrations, and now better understand their wants, wishes, and pain points. This, coupled with the added exposure to marketers will no doubt allow me to better achieve my career goals.

What is one thing people might not know about being an administrator?

One thing that people might not know about being an administrator is that you have the ability to be incredibly strategic while performing the executionary task at hand. You, as an admin, are often closest to the client's data and their website and can greatly influence how their Answers experience performs. I've helped uncover use cases on kick-off calls, made suggestions on data mappings, and even consulted on where the search bar lives on the homepage.

What is the toughest challenge you have had to overcome on a project?

The toughest challenge I've had to overcome on a project was definitely just getting through my first build. It can be a bit of a daunting task if you've never coded before, however the solution template made it super simple to get started and all of the information I needed was the Hitchhikers training modules and community. Now, I am so much more confident going into the building process, and it's pretty rewarding to see yourself progress so quickly like that.