
Mozilla Internship Reflections - vodkq
http://coreyford.name/2013/09/16/mozilla.html
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jzelinskie
What's the best way to approach Mozilla about getting involved in a project?
I'm an undergrad that's interested in getting some more experience
contributing to projects, but not necessarily looking for a full-time
internship. I spend time on their IRC, but only #rust.

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ndesaulniers
You don't need to ask permission to get involved. _Everything_ is open source,
just write a patch. [0] There's also more ways to contribute than just writing
code. [1] Check out some more of our IRC channels. [2] Just don't be afraid to
get started, everyone was a noob at some point. The rust team does a great job
as marking bugs beginner or easy in their issue tracker.

Also, you're handle made me do a double take! [3]

[0]
[http://www.whatcanidoformozilla.org/](http://www.whatcanidoformozilla.org/)

[1] [http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/contribute/](http://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/contribute/)

[2] [https://wiki.mozilla.org/IRC](https://wiki.mozilla.org/IRC)

[3] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jwz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jwz)

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k__
I thought about working for Mozilla, too.

Is this the normal process? First doing some OSS stuff for them and then
applying for a job?

They sound like a good company, but they probably only employ the best...

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Yoric
I work at Mozilla. Having contributed to a FOSS project is not a requirement,
although it's a big bonus – note that any FOSS project is taken into
consideration, not just Mozilla stuff.

Now, if you want to come and do some FOSS with us, you're welcome :)
[http://client00.chat.mibbit.com/?server=irc.mozilla.org&chan...](http://client00.chat.mibbit.com/?server=irc.mozilla.org&channel=%23introduction&nick=k___))

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k__
Ah, I read some of your stuff in the bugtracker/project directory(?)

I found the whole thing interesting, but a bit intimidating, because I never
did FOSS stuff, code reviews etc. are all new to me.

But it's probably a good thing for improving skills.

Thank you for the link. :)

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yeukhon
I like MV more than SF office. I did the same thing: there is a constant
pressure that I can't always bother people because people might say "it's on
the wiki". It's still a hard decision to make.

More Mozilla intern blog posts should come... let's bomb HN.

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educating
> Documentation is often not the best way to understand code.

I hope they teach that in college now. As much code as possible should be
self-documenting. It can be short and/or efficient (one-liners ok), but it
should be clear to someone with experience, so have good method names,
variable names, decent formatting, organization, etc.

It took me about 8 years of professional coding experience before I truly
appreciated this, so hammering it in in college is key.

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jmduke
The line that has always stuck with me is that code should aptly explain how
and comments should aptly explain why.

