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Discussion on: How should I go about setting myself up for my "dream job" at Mozilla?

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jankeromnes profile image
Jan Keromnes

Very cool post and great plan! I've worked at Mozilla for 5 years, and I confirm that it's one of the most interesting and altruistic places to work at. Not without its own problems, like any other org, but I still highly recommend it.

Contributing and increasing your impact in Mozilla's projects is a great way to learn and acquire industry-wide useful skills, and also to get noticed by potential future colleagues and hiring managers. But it's also very hard work and it can never guarantee you a job.

Mozilla's hiring process is also notoriously rough, perhaps due to Mozilla's outsized popularity vs its small number of actual employees, and having been through and participated in it, I can confirm there is a certain unavoidable randomness to it. There are a lot of amazing candidates, so high chances of slipping though the cracks unnoticed. Please never take it personally and just keep trying again.

It's gotten better lately, but used to go a bit like this:

  1. Wow, we absolutely need to hire someone for this role right now
  2. Open a position on Careers, XXX people apply over a few weeks
  3. XX amazing people make it through technical tests and interviews
  4. Choose one

Still, please don't let me discourage you. Firefox is pure rocket science (in a good way), Rust and Servo are science-fiction turning into reality, Mozilla is full of incredibly friendly & smart human beings who shape technology to make people's lives better. Good luck following your dreams, I hope you succeed. :)

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redoxeon profile image
Michael Harding

Thanks for the response! Your last paragraph makes me even more excited to try and start contributing, and I'm grateful for your candid words throughout. It's fun to have my head in the clouds about working for Mozilla, but just as important to keep my feet on the ground with expectations, and realizing that there is some randomness and no guarantees definitely help with that.