Hacker News Reader

You forgot step 1.5: make contributing to open-source an unwritten rule to getting a job in the industry

Full disclosure: I got my current job before I had contributed anything to open source but I was asked a lot about it while applying to companies like it's expected that you work in your free time

View on HN

I think in my entire time working I haven't met anyone who has significantly contributed to open source (aside from "let me fix some bug that's annoying me in a library"), so I'm not sure how required it really is

It varies on focus area. Most big OSS projects are infrastructural in nature, and so if you're working in that space there's actually a lot of engineers who you meet with OSS experience beyond fixing random bugs. Even then, for every OSS engineer doing big OSS contributions, there are many who never do, it's just the nature of the business. I know of just one hiring decision (out of hundreds and hundreds) that was made because of OSS contributions, and I know no interviewers who routinely checked OSS contributions beyond surface level.

open-source using permissive licenses + pressure to contribute = unpaid labor

No wonder Microsoft loves it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com