Final reflections
Learning is hard, and takes a considerable amount of time and practice. It can be made easier by working on tasks that have meaningful results. Teaching skills that you are still perfecting yourself is also a great method of reaffirming knowledge.
There is a massive difference between expectations and reality. When starting at Mozilla I expected full time work to be much the same as volunteering had been in years previous. This is not the case. Despite having the freedom to work on projects of mostly my own choosing, the timeframes available for completion are much shorter, and only becoming more so. Mozilla moves at a tremendous pace. What is needed one month can sometimes be redundant the next. This makes it extremely difficult to know what tasks should be prioritised at times.
Working in the open is critical to productivity in the long term. It is an activity that I am reasonably well versed in, however it is all too easy to start working on a project and become blinkered by it. Not noticing work happening in parallel that should be merged or prioritised. This has happened to me on a few occasions, though fortunately without any serious consequences.
“A degree has no value, unless you don’t have one.” A phrase that has been repeated to me by a number of individuals when conversing about whether or not I should complete my own degree. Working for Mozilla is a dream come true. Quite literally. The work that I’ve had the good fortune to be involved in is changing lives of individuals, and providing opportunities that would otherwise not have existed. It is going to be an extremely difficult task to return to University knowing that this work must continue, and without my involvement – for the time being at least. However right now a degree is still the only universally recognised qualification accepted for a wide variety of international applications, activities, etc... The value of my degree is merely having one.
I’ve grown as an individual this past year more than any that has come before it. Not just in technical ability, but in the way I think, balance work and life, idealism and pragmatism. At the start of the year I was like a kid in a candy store. I had a reasonably free reign over my time and project choice, however, I struggled to fully understand the impact that my choices would have. Now I feel I have a firmer grasp on the implications of my choices, and potential choices that I would never have gained through University. Every option is balanced against a wide variety of variables from time costs to learning outcomes (for myself and others).
A final remark
Mozilla has forever been a large part of who I am, and who I am to become. Though I now doubt the true value of the current formal education system it has served its purpose and given me the chance to work full time on a project that quite literally shapes the lives of millions.
The many people that I’ve had the chance to work with over this past year are true source of inspiration, and have taught me more in the past 12 months, than I’ve learned in the 252 previous ones!
My hope for the future is that Mozilla continues to channel it's passion for openness, transparency, and freedom of knowledge, and that I might one day get to work side-by-side with my personal heroes again.