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This is a really hard blog post to write, but I need to share this with you: I’m leaving Mozilla.

It started in 2009

At the end of 2008 I had started learning to code extensions for Firefox, and in March 2009 I went to Berlin to give my first international presentation at an add-ons workshop. It was amazing! The rush of being on stage, teaching people, learning from them; helping, discussing and having a great time! I really loved it and at that time I felt like I had found home, what I was supposed to work with.

The following years I was part of the Mozilla community, speaking at more workshops and attending MozCamps. In 2011, a position came up as a Technical Evangelist and I joined Mozilla full time.

What has happened since

Since I started I’ve gotten to meet numerous fantastic and inspiring people, both employees and people in the great Mozilla community. I’ve traveled extensively and became the Most well-travelled speaker on Lanyrd – now the count is up to 32 countries.

I’ve also written more in detail about Why I travel and about working with developer relations and Why I Do What I Do. There’s also lots more in the Travel category. I’ve worked on a lot of things at Mozilla over the years, and a couple of the things I’m really proud of is having run the Mozilla Hacks blog over the last two years, and having published 350 quality posts in 2 years! I also took the initiative to launch feedback channels around the Firefox Developer Tools and Open Web Apps and we’ve gotten great feedback from developers there.


Alas, it’s time to move on. I’ve always preached to developers to always strive for more, whether that’s a new position in the current company or changing jobs, to ensure they keep on evolving and don’t stagnate. And I feel I really have to follow my own example in this regard.

I’ve gotten to learn and experience a lot of things at Mozilla and for that I’m eternally grateful.

Mozilla is going through a number of challenges at the moment, and to be honest, it’s my belief that the upper management need to acknowledge and address these.

I believe Mozilla is representing a great cause and I wish they can fix and tend to what they’re facing and that they come out stronger. I believe the Open Web and people need Mozilla and I wish it, and all the great people I know there, all the best.

What happens next?

I will be starting a new job, and I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, Thursday. For now, I’ll just let this sink in and then I’ll talk more about it.

If you have any questions or thoughts, please let me know here in the comments or e-mail me at robert [at] robertnyman [dot] com.

I’m always here for you. Thanks for reading.

