So I just signed a full-time contract with Mozilla and I will be starting as a Mobile Software Engineer next week. Mostly focusing on iOS development but also other platforms.
This is quite a change for me. For the past 15 years I have been doing consulting work and startups on my own and I've always been in charge of my own time and plans. I had never really considered a 'real' job until I started working at Mozilla. That is how awesome they are.
I started working for them in August as a contractor. On the Sync client for iOS, Firefox Home.
It did not take long before I noticed that Mozilla operated very differently than most companies that I had done work for. Mozilla is all about quality and doing the right thing versus maximizing profits and keeping shareholders happy. For me that was a real eye-opener and a change that I was looking for in my professional career.
One thing that I love about Mozilla is that we work in the open. There are no secrets. I have friends at companies like Apple and they are not allowed to talk to their spouse about what they do. That is horrible. Mozilla is completely the opposite. Everything that I do is open. It is part of the mission. It is highly encouraged to share, collaborate and participate.
But don't think this is all easy. Mozilla's mission does require a lot of hard and professional work, organization, deadlines and crazy hours. But I don't care about so much, because it is fun to do that, and because you know it is not to make your CEO rich when they IPO, instead you do it to make the (digital) world a better place. Different mission. Different kind of reward.
I've been working in Toronto office and at home since August. Together with great people from a team distributed over Mountain View, Germany and France. We meet on IRC, email, and phone conferences.
I've also been to Mountain View to participate in the quarterly work week, where all Mozilla people from all over the globe get together to meet and to get stuff done. Pretty awesome to get almost 300 smart folks together.
I personally don't think money should be the biggest motivator, but the compensation is excellent. Competitive salaries, good benefits, lots of perks. Mozilla takes great care of their biggest asset: people.
This is quite a change for me. For the past 15 years I have been doing consulting work and startups on my own and I've always been in charge of my own time and plans. I had never really considered a 'real' job until I started working at Mozilla. That is how awesome they are.
I started working for them in August as a contractor. On the Sync client for iOS, Firefox Home.
It did not take long before I noticed that Mozilla operated very differently than most companies that I had done work for. Mozilla is all about quality and doing the right thing versus maximizing profits and keeping shareholders happy. For me that was a real eye-opener and a change that I was looking for in my professional career.
One thing that I love about Mozilla is that we work in the open. There are no secrets. I have friends at companies like Apple and they are not allowed to talk to their spouse about what they do. That is horrible. Mozilla is completely the opposite. Everything that I do is open. It is part of the mission. It is highly encouraged to share, collaborate and participate.
But don't think this is all easy. Mozilla's mission does require a lot of hard and professional work, organization, deadlines and crazy hours. But I don't care about so much, because it is fun to do that, and because you know it is not to make your CEO rich when they IPO, instead you do it to make the (digital) world a better place. Different mission. Different kind of reward.
I've been working in Toronto office and at home since August. Together with great people from a team distributed over Mountain View, Germany and France. We meet on IRC, email, and phone conferences.
I've also been to Mountain View to participate in the quarterly work week, where all Mozilla people from all over the globe get together to meet and to get stuff done. Pretty awesome to get almost 300 smart folks together.
I personally don't think money should be the biggest motivator, but the compensation is excellent. Competitive salaries, good benefits, lots of perks. Mozilla takes great care of their biggest asset: people.
This will be a great year :-)