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Ask HN: What's it like to work at Mozilla these days?

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Re: Ask HN: What's it like to work at Mozilla these days?

#61

Post by veeti »

Grue3 wrote: post #56
gcp wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

giving Firefox users a browser that looks like, and feeling like Chrome. Yawn. What did we do this time? Make it faster? Follow platform guidelines or modernize the design style? Adopt an extension model that can be combined with replacing the browser internals? Use rounded tabs? No wait, scratch that, they're square again.

Made it impossible to use add-ons like Tab Groups, making impossible to use the browser with many tabs open (just like Chrome, but you can't open many tabs in it anyway because it eats so much memory per tab).

The New Firefox and Ridiculous Numbers of Tabs

https://metafluff.com/2017/07/21/i-am-a-tab-hoarder/

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to work at Mozilla these days?

#62

Post by ianbicking »

zerr wrote: post #14

They advertise remote jobs but it is actually limited to several counties. Also, they differentiate salaries based on your location.

If you are curious about the compensation model, I wrote about it some here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13881004 – I personally think it's pretty fair.

It's true we don't hire everywhere. Most people are from the EU, United States, and Canada. There is an office in Japan, China, Taiwan, and a small group in New Zealand, with some people scattered about in Australia. The timezones in Asia are really rough, so I believe there's reluctance to hire there for positions where the team is not already located in Asia.

Outside of those countries I think we've used Elance (which is Upwork now?), but I think that's discouraged for new hires.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to work at Mozilla these days?

#63

Post by canuckistani »

vertex-four wrote: post #6

Surely it depends what you're working on there? There'll be projects that are mostly-ignored and slowly dying, and projects which are core to the organisation's goals.

We are getting better at killing projects more quickly if they aren't working.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to work at Mozilla these days?

#64

Post by canuckistani »

k__ wrote: post #33

I was a contributor 3 years ago and my experience with Mozilla was mixed. On the one hand, the people are skilled and super nice and I think you do good stuff when working there. On the other hand you work on big old software projects with all the tools that grew onto them over the years. So if you on the technical side of things, you better like maintenance work, hehe.

...and, yes there is a legacy problem with old code bases, but one trade-off for interns, contributors, junior developers is that you get to make an impact on a codebase used in a commercial project by hundreds of millions of people. Terrible tools written in anger in 2003 are still in use, sure, and terrible architectural decisions have been made, re-made, then made again over the years. It's the kind of messy any codebase eventually gets to.

This codebase still has life in it though, and the proof is in how far Gecko has come in the last year. Go run Nightly for a bit, compare it to Chrome or current Firefox. It's a big deal.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to work at Mozilla these days?

#65

Post by ianbicking »

I think there's a certain psychic load to working at a mission-driven organization. Who are you working for? The mission? Who's interpretation of the mission? Your manager? The company? Yourself? And then at times when you don't feel like you are living up to your potential, or opportunity, or expectations, then there's a tendency to internalize that. Having internalized it, it can color how you look at the organization (and everything else), usually with general distaste and resentment.

Anyway, that's happened to me at times, and I've seen it happen to other people. I think the dynamics this creates inform a lot of the Glassdoor reviews. I think it's emotionally easier if you have a transactional job: the company pays you, you do something that makes the company money, or at least do what your boss says to do. The pros and cons of emotional detachment are beyond the scope of this comment.

Financially Mozilla is doing fine, and probably will continue doing fine. It's not on my list of worries.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to work at Mozilla these days?

#66

Post by canuckistani »

zerr wrote: post #53
gcp wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, so one country in Europe is excluded. This is quite far removed from "remote hiring limited to some particular countries". A large part of Mozilla's workforce is spread out through Europe, so there can't be too many exceptions.

"... only available in particular countries which doesn't include your country, unfortunately..." was the message from HR.

That's true, we can't hire everywhere.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to work at Mozilla these days?

#67

Post by canuckistani »

mandie wrote: post #7
mtmail wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you back up your opinion with links?

Main project is a sinking ship (cf. % of usage), most of their big projects have failed and closed in the last years (mobile, email client, persona, etc), they are caught in a major rewrite of their main project that may never end. It's a matter of time they stop getting funded. This is my opinion; it is what I believe will happen, based on past and current events. Of course I might be wrong, or not.

Two things:

1. the largest part of the work on the "major rewrite" - do you mean quantum or servo? If the former, most of the bits we really care about will get shipped on Nov. 14th, and some other things like webrender will get shipped over the winter.

If you mean servo, you're right, that is a longer-term strategic project, but has recently provide useful as a source for innovation in Gecko with things like stylo and webrender, and especially Rust's capabilities as a language.

2. Mozilla is self-funded and has a very different governance model than perhaps you're used to - we are a US Corp ( and subsidiaries ) owned entirely by a US-based Not-for-profit.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to work at Mozilla these days?

#68

Post by canuckistani »

mandie wrote: post #7
mtmail wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you back up your opinion with links?

Main project is a sinking ship (cf. % of usage), most of their big projects have failed and closed in the last years (mobile, email client, persona, etc), they are caught in a major rewrite of their main project that may never end. It's a matter of time they stop getting funded. This is my opinion; it is what I believe will happen, based on past and current events. Of course I might be wrong, or not.

( to be 100% crystal clear, I do think we'll ship things that use servo down the road )

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to work at Mozilla these days?

#69

Post by javaun »

I dreamed of working on Firefox in 2004, took some scenic detours, and got here in 2014. It’s absolutely amazing now. But my first year was extremely difficult, especially as a new remotee. The Brendan Eich thing happened on week 3. Chrome was eating our lunch, and Mozilla was focused on shipping a phone. The company was split along that fault line, with platform engineering straddling both sides. We were losing. We wondered if we’d survive. Some of the Glassdoor reviews reflect what was indeed a tumultuous and uncertain time.

The culture was in tumult too, “old guard” vs. new. Some reviews were written by people who made terrific contributions at one time, but couldn’t turn the corner and took that anger out the door with them.

We re-org’ed (so many re-org’s!). We have an amazing executive and director-level team. We’re well-run, in great financial shape. Our culture has changed (inevitable), and I like where we’re going together. We’re lined up behind Firefox, and we’re doing terrific work again.

I tell interviewees that working here can at times feel like living in a Reddit thread. There are amazingly thoughtful, generous, and mind-glowingly smart people working on the hardest problems across continents and time zones. Sometimes there’s acrimony or trolling. We’re all here because the things we create together can only be made here. We go head-to-head with competitors 50-100x our size. I could go to those companies, and I wouldn’t have a fraction of the impact and the responsibility I have at Mozilla. No company is a fit for everyone, but for someone like me, it’s hard to imagine being happy anywhere else.

Re: Ask HN: What's it like to work at Mozilla these days?

#70

Post by tbolt »

Jdam wrote: post #9
jvehent wrote: post #5

I've been at Mozilla four years, working on operations security, and I still consider it the best job I've ever had. I worked in banking and a few startups before joining Mozilla, and neither the culture or technology were ever great. Mozilla has both of these things, and a mission statement that still makes me want to get out of bed in the morning (work for mankind, not for the man). Is it a sinking ship? Only if we…

All this "we make the world a better place" is actually the most annoying thing for me as a user. Every time I open Firefox (not so often anymore), I get some "save the world"-spam on the frontpage.

Would you rather them throw in the towel?
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