5 answers
Arshad
Student
Singapore
11
Questions
Asked
1706 views
Does contributing to open source projects help in boosting your CV/resume?
I am have recently graduated with a mechanical engineering degree and now finding a job. I lack the relevant work experience needed for some of the jobs. There are jobs that require strong programming knowledge along with engineering degree. I have experience in programming from the projects I did in college. However in order to stand as a better candidate, I feel that contributing to opensource projects in GitHub help in showcasing my skills. What do you think about this? #programming #employment #open-source
Login to comment
5 answers
Martin Prunell
2
Answers
Montevideo, Montevideo Department, Uruguay
Updated
Martin’s Answer
It's definitely a major factor when applying for software development position. I don't know how important it can be for mechanical engineering, but if you're required to have programming experience which you don't have, contributing to Open Source projects can be a great way of demonstrating your skills. You can also create your own projects on Github, do some tutorials or work on some challenges you can do just for fun.
- Martin
Thanks for the advice.
Arshad
Raveendra Padala
Software Senior Principal Engineer
3
Answers
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Updated
Raveendra’s Answer
Contributing to open source will help you. Here are the reasons:
Reason 1: Work as part of a distributed team
When looking for a job, experience counts. You need to know how to work as part of a team, collaborating with others to build large and complex applications. Large, open source projects are almost always built by a large team. Sometimes the people in those teams even work for large organizations (e.g. GitLab, React/Facebook, etc.). By becoming a contributor you get the chance to work with those exceptional teams without having to be hired by those companies.
You will sharpen your written communication skills, understand how to pick and negotiate things to work on, perfect your Git Flow/GitLab Flow, and many other things that are as valuable as understanding the language syntax.
Reason 2: Work in a complex and large application
If you join a company, you will most likely work on an existing application. And, probably, it will be a large and complex one. When you join an open source project, that's exactly the scenario that you will face.
You will first need to set up your local development environment following the contributing guidelines provided by the project. You will then start by refactoring existing code to correct typos and fix small bugs, the same way you would at a regular job! Finally, you will start understanding how all the pieces of a large application fit together, how it was architected, and where the code for each functionality lives.
Reason 3: Get a lot of good feedback
Every time you pick an open source issue to work on, you will start by forking the project and creating a feature branch. You will write tests and code until you are happy with your solution, and then submit a merge request to the original code.
However, this is just the first step in the process. One of the main developers at the project will review your merge request and will tell you if it's ready to be merged. They will also provide feedback about what you need to fix before your code can be merged. They really want your help, but they also need to keep the quality of the code at a high level. They will help you, and you will end up learning a lot in the process.
Reason 4: Build an online reputation
Getting experience working as part of a team and contributing to large and complex applications is really important. Contributing to open source will help you with that too. After quickly reading your resume, employers will want to find you online, and they will want to see your code. GitLab and GitHub profiles are the new resumes.
If employers can see that you are an active member of large open source projects, that will tell them something else that is very important: software is not just what you do for a living, but it's also your passion and hence what you do in your free time.
Reason 5: Network with the community
Open source projects often have large organizations behind them who are constantly hiring new developers. Well, that's exactly the value you offer as an active member of an open source community. You know the product, you know the code, and the people behind the project know you. Chances are that you will eventually be offered to work for them. In fact, almost a third of the first 40 engineers that GitLab hired were contributors to its codebase first.
Reason 6: Stay motivated
We all know the single and most important advice to be successful at anything is perseverance. However, staying motivated and focused while learning to code and applying for jobs is not easy. There are a lot of things to learn, a lot of different paths to take, and many rejections on the path to landing your first job.
Joining an open source project will give you the real-world encouragement and a community to support you throughout the journey.
Reason 7: Many candidates have GitHub accounts strewn with several projects that were never finished. Most employers would rather see a few repos that appear polished than dozens of sketches that need lots of attention. One simple way to add some diversity to a GitHub portfolio is to implement the same solution over again using different languages or paradigms. Build a game in Python, rewrite it in Java.
Reason 8: If you working on one or more live Open Source Projects, you may not get paid but you would be acknowledged with the credits and that can be mentioned in the resume. It is going to give you a lot more chances to get a real job, even sooner than your meritorious batch mate.
Reason 9: Show you can code, A portfolio of code is primarily used to demonstrate basic programming ability and an understanding of fundamental concepts. It can also serve as a catalyst during interviews that helps facilitate deep explorations into the thought process behind a technical decision. These conversations are what make for great interviews, and the opportunity to discuss familiar material.
Reason 10: contributors also gain many professional benefits and advantages due to the experience of working on Free and opensource projects. The best thing one can do is learning, and working on FOSS projects just let you do that with many others, which is going to put real-life effects on many people’s daily computing jobs. Apart from all the above points, there is one more which is “developing a productive hobby."
Contributing to open source is the best thing you can do right now to help you on your way to landing your first job? I'm pretty sure you are. Go ahead and start now!
Reason 1: Work as part of a distributed team
When looking for a job, experience counts. You need to know how to work as part of a team, collaborating with others to build large and complex applications. Large, open source projects are almost always built by a large team. Sometimes the people in those teams even work for large organizations (e.g. GitLab, React/Facebook, etc.). By becoming a contributor you get the chance to work with those exceptional teams without having to be hired by those companies.
You will sharpen your written communication skills, understand how to pick and negotiate things to work on, perfect your Git Flow/GitLab Flow, and many other things that are as valuable as understanding the language syntax.
Reason 2: Work in a complex and large application
If you join a company, you will most likely work on an existing application. And, probably, it will be a large and complex one. When you join an open source project, that's exactly the scenario that you will face.
You will first need to set up your local development environment following the contributing guidelines provided by the project. You will then start by refactoring existing code to correct typos and fix small bugs, the same way you would at a regular job! Finally, you will start understanding how all the pieces of a large application fit together, how it was architected, and where the code for each functionality lives.
Reason 3: Get a lot of good feedback
Every time you pick an open source issue to work on, you will start by forking the project and creating a feature branch. You will write tests and code until you are happy with your solution, and then submit a merge request to the original code.
However, this is just the first step in the process. One of the main developers at the project will review your merge request and will tell you if it's ready to be merged. They will also provide feedback about what you need to fix before your code can be merged. They really want your help, but they also need to keep the quality of the code at a high level. They will help you, and you will end up learning a lot in the process.
Reason 4: Build an online reputation
Getting experience working as part of a team and contributing to large and complex applications is really important. Contributing to open source will help you with that too. After quickly reading your resume, employers will want to find you online, and they will want to see your code. GitLab and GitHub profiles are the new resumes.
If employers can see that you are an active member of large open source projects, that will tell them something else that is very important: software is not just what you do for a living, but it's also your passion and hence what you do in your free time.
Reason 5: Network with the community
Open source projects often have large organizations behind them who are constantly hiring new developers. Well, that's exactly the value you offer as an active member of an open source community. You know the product, you know the code, and the people behind the project know you. Chances are that you will eventually be offered to work for them. In fact, almost a third of the first 40 engineers that GitLab hired were contributors to its codebase first.
Reason 6: Stay motivated
We all know the single and most important advice to be successful at anything is perseverance. However, staying motivated and focused while learning to code and applying for jobs is not easy. There are a lot of things to learn, a lot of different paths to take, and many rejections on the path to landing your first job.
Joining an open source project will give you the real-world encouragement and a community to support you throughout the journey.
Reason 7: Many candidates have GitHub accounts strewn with several projects that were never finished. Most employers would rather see a few repos that appear polished than dozens of sketches that need lots of attention. One simple way to add some diversity to a GitHub portfolio is to implement the same solution over again using different languages or paradigms. Build a game in Python, rewrite it in Java.
Reason 8: If you working on one or more live Open Source Projects, you may not get paid but you would be acknowledged with the credits and that can be mentioned in the resume. It is going to give you a lot more chances to get a real job, even sooner than your meritorious batch mate.
Reason 9: Show you can code, A portfolio of code is primarily used to demonstrate basic programming ability and an understanding of fundamental concepts. It can also serve as a catalyst during interviews that helps facilitate deep explorations into the thought process behind a technical decision. These conversations are what make for great interviews, and the opportunity to discuss familiar material.
Reason 10: contributors also gain many professional benefits and advantages due to the experience of working on Free and opensource projects. The best thing one can do is learning, and working on FOSS projects just let you do that with many others, which is going to put real-life effects on many people’s daily computing jobs. Apart from all the above points, there is one more which is “developing a productive hobby."
Contributing to open source is the best thing you can do right now to help you on your way to landing your first job? I'm pretty sure you are. Go ahead and start now!
Gouthamraj Sekar
Technical Consulting Engineer
6
Answers
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Updated
Gouthamraj’s Answer
Contributing to open-source projects is plus point when you're applying for a developer position. Major IT companies have realized the value opensource software brings to them and thus give preference to candidates who have contribute to open source projects.
Gouthamraj recommends the following next steps:
Allan B. Ashenfelter
Senior Technical Lead at Barclaycard
3
Answers
Wayne, Pennsylvania
Updated
Allan B.’s Answer
Open source projects give you "real world experience" right now and completely for free, and they do so in a "battle-hardening" environment that most often deals with technology on the bleeding edge. They also afford you the opportunity to "get your name out there" (provided the project has adequate visibility in the development community) and network with other developers. Finally (and equally importantly) they demonstrate passion: for learning, for doing, for technology in general. Like a Master's candidate drafting his/her thesis the open source contributor shows commitment to the advancement of the art.`
Dnyanraj Mali
DevOps
1
Answer
Pune, Maharashtra, India
Updated
Dnyanraj’s Answer
Yes.. It definitely helps. You can showcase real world problems that you answered. When you do not have "relevant" industry experience, you can proactively contribute on Open Source projects and share the code contribution links in your resume.