How I Found My Dream Job Through Open Source Contributions
As a full-stack web developer, I‘m often asked for advice on how to break into the field and land that first job. Aspiring developers are usually surprised when I tell them that my big break didn‘t come through a traditional job application, but rather through my contributions to open source projects.
You see, early in my coding journey, I faced the classic catch-22: most developer jobs wanted to see professional experience, but I couldn‘t get professional experience without first landing a job. Submitting my resume through online portals felt like shouting into a void – I rarely heard back, much less scored an interview.
Rather than getting discouraged, I decided to focus my energy on beefing up my skills and gaining practical experience by any means necessary. That‘s when I discovered the world of open source software development, where I could use my coding abilities to make tangible contributions to real-world projects and publicly demonstrate my value as a developer.
Over the course of two years, I contributed to dozens of open source projects, from enhancing the curriculum for a popular online coding education platform to building new features for tools used by millions of developers worldwide. Along the way, I organically grew my network, credibility, and technical expertise to the point where my dream job came to me – no traditional resume or application required.
But I‘m getting ahead of myself. Allow me to back up and walk you through exactly how contributing to open source paved my unique path to a fulfilling full-stack development career, so you can apply the same principles to accelerate your own coding journey.
The Rise of Open Source
First, some context on just how integral open source software has become to the modern technology landscape. Many of the tools and platforms that power our digital world, from the Firefox web browser to the Android mobile operating system to the React JavaScript framework, are built on foundations of open source code.
A 2019 survey by Red Hat found that 95% of IT leaders agree that enterprise open source is important to their organization‘s overall enterprise infrastructure strategy. Meanwhile, a 2020 analysis by Tidelift revealed that 92% of applications contain open source components.
The ubiquity of open source means that the vast majority of companies, from scrappy startups to multinational corporations, rely on a global community of independent developers like you and me to maintain the software that powers their businesses. This dynamic creates enormous demand for developers who have demonstrated their abilities by contributing to widely-used open source projects.
Beyond the technical benefits, open source is also fueling a sea change in how companies hire and evaluate technical talent. In the 2020 Open Source Jobs Report by The Linux Foundation and edX, 74% of employers said that having experience with open source software has been a key consideration in their most recent hires.
As Megan Byrd-Sanicki, Executive Director of the Open Source Initiative, put it: "Open source has truly transformed the tech industry, not only in the products and platforms themselves, but also in how individuals collaborate to continuously improve software and find fulfilling work based on their contributions."
The Undeniable Benefits of Contributing
When I first ventured into open source myself, I wasn‘t thinking about how it could land me a job down the road. I was simply drawn to the opportunity to hone my coding skills by working on real-world software projects alongside more knowledgeable developers who could show me the ropes.
As Safia Abdalla, maintainer of the nteract open source notebook environment, explained: "Open source contributions are one of the best ways to gain practical development experience, especially for those who don‘t have access to internships or other opportunities. You‘re able to see how experienced maintainers structure and decompose large codebases while getting feedback on your own code contributions."
Indeed, working on open source projects exposed me to best practices in areas like version control (Git), code reviews, unit testing, and continuous integration that I hadn‘t been able to fully grasp through tutorials or personal projects alone. The cycle of submitting pull requests and responding to maintainer feedback dramatically leveled up my skills in a short period of time.
Beyond the technical benefits, contributing to open source also plugged me into a global community of passionate developers eager to share their knowledge and support each other‘s growth. I was blown away by how generous maintainers and veteran contributors were with their time, often hopping on calls to pair program with me through challenging issues.
As Shawn Wang, Head of Developer Experience at Netlify, recalled from his own open source beginnings: "I received so much mentorship from maintainers and other contributors who taught me everything from debugging Node.js applications to navigating open source governance structures. Those relationships became the foundation of the professional network that accelerated my career."
The incredible support I received from the open source community motivated me to pay it forward by creating my own educational content, from detailed tutorials to YouTube videos walking through my contributions. This content didn‘t just help other developers following in my footsteps – it also raised my visibility and established my credibility as an expert in the technologies I was working with.
As Wang put it: "Nowadays, recruiters and hiring managers are increasingly looking at candidates‘ open source contributions and online presence to gauge their capabilities. By consistently putting out helpful content and meaningful contributions, you can make yourself visible to the right opportunities without ever formally applying."
Landing My Dream Job
That‘s exactly what happened for me. As I became more involved with high-profile open source projects and strengthened my relationships with influential maintainers, people started coming to me with exciting job opportunities I never could have discovered through traditional channels.
It started with an invitation to apply for a job maintaining the freeCodeCamp curriculum and quickly progressed to consulting gigs building out new features for widely-used developer tools. As the impact and visibility of my open source contributions grew, so did the demand for my skills.
The pivotal moment came when I contributed a major feature to the React DevTools and published an in-depth blog post announcing the release. A senior engineer at Facebook, the company behind React, stumbled upon my post and reached out to discuss the feature. We instantly hit it off, bonding over our shared passion for open source and empowering other developers.
Although I had never formally applied to Facebook, that conversation led to an invitation to interview for a developer advocate role focused on the open source tools I had already been heavily contributing to. The interviews felt like natural extensions of the discussions and coding sessions I had been having with other contributors for months.
In the end, I landed my dream job – not because of my resume or pedigree, but because of the undeniable body of open source work I had amassed and the reputation I had built within the developer community. And I‘m far from the only one who has taken this open source route to an incredible career.
The 2021 Open Source Survey by DigitalOcean found that more than half of full-time technologists have found a job through their involvement with open source, with an even higher percentage among younger developers. Once hired, open source contributors also command higher salaries, with a 2019 analysis by a University of Chicago economist finding that a developer‘s open source contributions are associated with as much as an 8% bump in annual pay.
Jumpstarting Your Own Open Source Journey
Maybe my story has inspired you to explore open source as a means of accelerating your own development career. If you‘re sold on the benefits but not sure where to start, let me leave you with some practical tips for finding the right project and making your first contributions.
- Identify your interests: What areas of software development are you most passionate about? Which programming languages, frameworks, or tools do you want to dive deeper into? Use these interests as a starting point for discovering relevant open source projects.
- Check the issues: Most open source projects use an issue tracker like GitHub Issues to manage bug reports, feature requests, and other development tasks. Look for issues tagged with labels like "good first issue", "beginner-friendly", or "help wanted" to find a suitable starting point.
- Read the Contributing Guide: Quality open source projects will have a CONTRIBUTING.md file in their source repository with step-by-step instructions for getting started. Following these steps will help you focus on making meaningful contributions rather than getting bogged down in logistics.
- Engage with the community: Don‘t be afraid to ask questions or seek guidance from the project maintainers and other contributors. Join the project‘s chat channel (Slack, Discord, etc.) and introduce yourself. Establishing relationships early will make it easier to collaborate and get feedback later on.
- Start small and iterate: Your first contributions don‘t need to be massive, ground-breaking features. Look for small bugs to fix, typos to correct, or docs to improve. Getting your feet wet with small, manageable tasks will build your confidence and help you ramp up gradually to bigger contributions.
If you‘re looking for more guidance on choosing the right project and navigating the contribution process, I highly recommend checking out How to Contribute to Open Source and First Timers Only, two phenomenal community-driven resources for open source beginners.
I‘ll also reiterate the offer I made earlier: if you‘re looking for a welcoming project to cut your teeth on, I invite you to check out the open source projects I help maintain, like the JavaScript Testing Best Practices guide or the Node.js Best Practices repository. We‘re always looking for passionate new contributors, and I‘d be more than happy to personally support you in getting started.
No matter which project you choose, remember that open source is a marathon, not a sprint. Your first contributions likely won‘t be ground-breaking, and that‘s totally okay. Focus on learning, asking questions, and gradually expanding your comfort zone. With each contribution, you‘ll be honing your skills, building your reputation, and expanding your network in ways that will yield massive dividends throughout your career.
So what are you waiting for? Find a project that resonates with you and dive in – your dream development job may be just a pull request away.