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Ask HN: Has anyone got a job by contributing to open source projects?

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Re: Ask HN: Has anyone got a job by contributing to open source projects?

#41

Post by em-bee »

pgeorgi wrote: post #18

I started working on open source firmware: first openbios, then coreboot. The one thing that made this a job opportunity (my career is coreboot-based for about 12 years now) was that I built some rapport within the communities. These days I'm paid to work on Chrome OS firmware, which uses coreboot. Becoming the go-to person for some aspect of the project is easier for smaller projects rather than huge operations like…

and coreboot is growing. i saw a job post just a few weeks ago from a company that is using coreboot, and coreboot developers were hiring too, or will soon. perfect time to get involved.

when it comes to hiring, a differentiator is that you are already working on the project. not everyone contributing now is actually waiting for a job.

in one niche community i was able to get interesting jobs because i was the only one willing to move to take the job.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone got a job by contributing to open source projects?

#42

Post by anindha »

jsqu99 wrote: post #37

I did! I can't tell you how exciting it was to be hired to help a company enhance the https://github.com/spree/spree extension I authored. It was the most rewarding phase of a 20+ year career. Bottom line: if you make yourself known/valuable in a community, opportunities will pop up. Go for it!

Spree looks cool. Some big companies are using it.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone got a job by contributing to open source projects?

#44

Post by ohthehugemanate »

Hard "yes".

As a manager at Microsoft I look at the github profile of every applicant who passes recruiter screening. Open source familiarity is a must, and regular contribution is a strong positive flag in my mind.

I think some companies/teams hire from contributors to their projects... But I haven't seen that happen personally so I can't speak to it.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone got a job by contributing to open source projects?

#45

Post by em-bee »

i offer paid and free mentoring (free if you work on my own projects, most of which are FOSS).

i don't know if i have enough experience C++ to be a good guide for you. it depends on what you expect from a mentor.

i recently worked with a student learning rust, without any rust experience on my side. i helped the student to structure the program, while they had to explain to me how certain rust constructs worked. that had the effect of the student having to explain what they learned about rust, which is a powerful way to increase their learning. (if you want to learn something, try teaching it to someone else)

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone got a job by contributing to open source projects?

#46

Post by em-bee »

pictur wrote: post #2

it will be an irrelevant question, but do you think that contributing to an open source is becoming a standard thing now?

i certainly hope not. because it's inherently unfair. not everyone can afford to work on FOSS in their free time.

this hits especially women who are still most often made responsible for housework and childcare, but it also hits others who maybe have to care for someone or value family life over their career.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone got a job by contributing to open source projects?

#47

Post by seotut2 »

edwintorok wrote: post #26
rvz wrote: post #8

I have met engineers who have been hired by FAANG companies and have told me that their regular community contributions towards high-profile open-source projects (They particularly mentioned QEMU, LLVM, Rust, Swift and V8) was the reason they got an offer. The barrier in regularly merging quality patches for review in these projects is very high and it is advantageous for the likes of these companies to shortlist you…

I highly recommend GSoC. It is a fantastic opportunity to learn and contribute to an open-source project by having a mentor from that project that you can talk to, and get paid to do it. I was already contributing to an open-source project (fireflier) when I applied for GSoC for the ClamAV project, and continued to contribute to the project after GSoC was over. Shortly afterwards got invited to be part of the team, a…

The OP is probably not a student, judging by his profile page, and GSoC is a program exclusively for students.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone got a job by contributing to open source projects?

#49

Post by rleigh »

Yes, three separate jobs to date over a span of 16 years. However, none of those three jobs directly utilised my open source contributions over the last 20 years. They made use of the skills I had, and which those open source contributions demonstrated publicly.

I didn't start working on open source projects because I wanted to get a job, and have some fodder for padding my CV. I worked on them because I was interested, and got deeply involved in several over many years. I think getting involved solely for getting a job, is doing it for the wrong reasons. You need some intrinsic interest as well.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone got a job by contributing to open source projects?

#50

Post by anindha »

seotut2 wrote: post #47
edwintorok wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly recommend GSoC. It is a fantastic opportunity to learn and contribute to an open-source project by having a mentor from that project that you can talk to, and get paid to do it. I was already contributing to an open-source project (fireflier) when I applied for GSoC for the ClamAV project, and continued to contribute to the project after GSoC was over. Shortly afterwards got invited to be part of the team, a…

The OP is probably not a student, judging by his profile page, and GSoC is a program exclusively for students.

Yes, not a student. It was useful to look at GSoC projects as a source of inspiration.
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