My new job: Technical Evangelist for Mozilla
It is a special day today. I have just resigned from my current job and am moving on to an extraordinary exciting challenge!
A little background
I’ve been working with web development, primarily interface development, since 1998 and HTML, CSS and JavaScript have been a major part of my life since. I’ve worked in numerous environments and assignments, and have gotten to work with very talented and fantastic people. Most of the time I have been working as a consultant, and I have slowly evolved into a place where I want something more; a challenge, something more suited to my aspirations for what I want to do:
- Talk to people and build relations
- Give presentations
- Write articles, demos and tests, exploring code and its web browser support – and then break it down and explain it
- Teaching people
- Travel to to meet exciting people and great places
My new job
My new job title is Technical Evangelist for Mozilla, for HTML5 and the Open Web. I will be working with all of the above: writing and dissecting code, writing articles, traveling around and meeting people to give presentations and build relations – and all of that in an open manner for a non-profit organization, all for the better of the Open Web! It will be good to try to make the already fantastic resource MDN (Mozilla Developer Network) even better and become a must-have resource for web developers.
I also look forward to working with other web browser-vendors to make documentation better and also let us together help improving an open environment for both developers and end users, in the name of letting everyone take part of it.
The Mozilla Developer Engagement Team
I am quite excited to be working with such an excellent team of inspiring people, consisting of (in alphabetical order by their first name):
- Christian Heilmann
- Christian has an extensive background in evangelism, and he is the Principal Developer Evangelist for Mozilla. We share many opinions and values and have spoken next to each other on a number of conferences.
- Janet Swisher
- Janet is a technical writer and form what I have seen, is very dedicated in making documentation accurate and applicable.
- Jay Patel
- Jay has been involved with Mozilla since the end of the 90s, and he has been working with a wide range of positions and taks within.
- Louis-Rémi
- He is a new intern based in Paris, and right know I don’t know much about him – I’m sure I will over time, though!
- Paul Rouget
- Paul is the creator of a number of fabulous demos showing what you can accomplish with open web technologies.
- Sheppy (Eric Shepherd)
- Sheppy is the Developer Documentation Lead for Mozilla, and I’ve seen his name on tons of documentation and he has been doing a enormous amount of good here.
- Stormy Peters
- Stormy is the manager for the Developer Engagement Team. For a long time she was the Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation and I truly admire her vast background in the open source community.
I also know that Rob Hawkes, behind some really cool stuff, has accepted and will be a Technical Evangelist too.
The way I see it the team seems to consist of a great mix of people with skills complementing each other. All from mind-blowing coding skills, through documentation and experience to relation building. Together we will cove the entire world, I can’t wait to be a part of this!
When will I start?
The time of notice in Sweden is quite long, and I expect to be starting for Mozilla during the summer. I need to work out my current assignments and do a proper hand-over to Valtech, who I have know worked for during almost four years. Valtech is a great place, they have always treated me well and given me a lot of freedom and they also have a great bunch of really talented people. They will be missed, but I also hope we can collaborate some way in the future.
Follow me
To know what I’m doing and to stay on top of my activities, please follow this blog and follow me on Twitter – I’ll do my best to help, educate and entertain you! 🙂
This is so exciting!
It is hard to fathom I will be able to work full time on exactly the things I want to do, for a cause I strongly believe in! I can completely honestly say that for who I am and what I want to do, this is one of the best jobs to get in the world!
As I think you understand, I am a very very happy person right now! This is something I have dreamed of, and I can’t believe it’s coming true! My late father, in his spare time, used to travel a lot all over the world for his hobby to teach and help people – and for me now to go in his footsteps, and to have this is as my job, makes me immensely proud, and I wish that if he could see me, he would feel the same way.
Yeahhh!
Great news!
congrats again fella 🙂
Congrats!!!! a great addition to the team!!
BTW, I thought Christian Heilmann was working for Yahoo.
Great news!
Congratulations to you and the Mozillas both 🙂
Congrats!
How much are you getting paid?
Only kidding.
Well done man.
Booyaka!
Congratulations!
Big warm congrats!
Spännande =) Grattis!
Congrats!!
Wow, congrats man!
Great news, congratulations!
Congratulation Robert!
🙂 Congrats!
Kickass! Another great hire to join the kickass Mozilla dev engagement team. 😀
Congratulations Robert! I think this is a job that fits you perfectly! Looking forward to see you speaking again soon 🙂
Congrats Robert! Very well deserved!
Hope it will take you on fantastic yourneys, and that family lets you be away from home enough to fullfill your mission. 🙂
Congratulations Robert, well deserved.
Kul, grattis Robert!
Grattis!!
Grattis!
Congrats! This is really exciting news 🙂
Congrats!
Grattis!
Stort grattis Robert, vi kommer sakna dig!
Congratulations! Sounds like a dream job!
Sounds like a great gig! Big congratulations.
I’m very very happy for you Robert! Best of luck!
Fantastic news for you, I think you’ll do a great job as well 🙂
Congrats, Robert! Having read your blog for the past few years, I can honestly say that this seems like the perfect job for you!
Stort grattis, verkligen något som passar dig!
That’s great news. Congrats!
Grattis och lycka till! Låter som perfekt matchning och väldigt spännande.
Wow! Grattis!
Congrats, great move 🙂
You are just the right guy for this job! Congratulations!
Grattis mannen! (Swedish)
Thank you very much everyone!
Teylor,
Nope, he’s with Mozilla now.
Pedro,
I’ll get paid well enough. I think. 🙂
Bjarne,
Thanks, I hope so too!
Congrats Robert, this is great news!
Are you also moving from Sweden or you’ll work from home?
Lea,
Thank you!
I’ll work from home in Sweden, combined with travel to various locations.
So cool. The last part, about your following the steps of your father, is a nice thing… like they say “the apple doesn’t fall far from its tree”.
Muchas felicidades!!!!
Congrats Robert on the new job!
You really have a kick-ass team so I’m really looking forward to see the cool stuff that you are able to pull together.
It would be also nice to have you guys come to Finland to speak on some of our geek meets.
Congrats! Let us know if they have any job openings. 😛
Robert, lots of luck to you. And kudos to Moz for picking a winner!
Congratulations !
I’m sure you’ll have massive fun with your new team ;).
Wow, Congrats! 🙂
Geries,
Thanks! And yes, I hope to be a good soon in that aspect!
Harri,
Thanks! And yes, I’m very happy about the teem! It would be nice to go to Finland and talk – I’m coming to Vaasa for an event at the end of April.
mdmadph,
Thank you! And yes, there are other available jobs at Mozilla.
Richard,
Thank you very much!
Neovov,
Thank you, and me too! 🙂
Chris,
Thank you!
Congrats for this cool new job!
ionut,
Thank you!
[…] March this year it was finally decided and happening – I joined Mozilla as a Technical Evangelist! Lots of new changes with working for something you truly believe in – a non-profit […]
[…] I joined Mozilla almost 14 months ago, and since then I’ve put a lot of time into travel, giving presentations and meeting web developers in different places. Parallel to that, I’ve blogged a good amount for the Mozilla Hacks blog about web development and the Open Web in general. […]