Thank you, Mozilla, for caring for me

Background story: I’ve been working with Mozilla full-time since 2009 (contributor in 2007 — intern in 2008). I’ve been working with the release engineering team, the automation team (A-team) and now within the Product Integrity organization. In all these years I’ve been blessed with great managers, smart and helpful co-workers, and enthusiastic support to explore career opportunities. It is an environment that has helped me flourish as a software engineer.

I will go straight to some of the benefits that I’ve enjoyed this year.

Parental leave

Three months at 100% of my salary. I did not earn bonus payouts during that time, however, it was worth the time I spent with my firstborn. We bonded very much during that time, I learned how to take care of my family while my wife worked, and I can proudly say that he’s a “daddy’s boy” :) (Not that I spoil him!).

Working from home 100% of the time

My favourite benefit. Period.

It really helps me as an employee, as I don’t enjoy commuting and I tend to talk a lot when I’m in the office. My family is very respectful of my work hours and I’m able to have deep-thought sessions in the comfort of my own home.

This is not a benefit that a lot of companies give, especially the bigger ones which expect you to relocate and come often to the office. I chuckle when I hear a company offer that their employees can work from home only a couple of days per week.

Wellness benefits

I appreciate that Mozilla allocaters some of their budget to pay for anything related to employee wellness (mental, spiritual & physical). Knowing that if I don’t use it I will lose it causes me to think about ways to apply the money to help me stay in shape.

Learning support/budget

This year, after a re-org and many years of doing the same work, I found myself in need of a new adventure — I get bored if I don’t feel as though I’m learning. With my manager’s support (thanks jmaher!), I embarked on a journey to become a front-end developer. Mozilla also supported me by paying for me to complete a React Nanodegree as part of the company’s learning budget.

To my great surprise, React has become rather popular inside Mozilla, and there is great need for front-end work within my org. It was also a nice surprise to see that switching to Javascript from Python was not as difficult as I thought it would be.

Thank you, Mozilla, for your continued support!