Ask HN: How can I leverage my Open-Source contributions to further my career? - WilandOr1903
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ryanto
Here are a few suggestions.

* List open source on your resume.

* During interviews talk about your open source accomplishments. Use open source as a way to show you have experience in software development. This is especially helpful with team based open source projects.

* If you are contributing to an open source project with a community be vocal in that space. Answer stack overflow questions, write blog posts, tweet, and get involved in other online areas where discussion takes place.

* Build a website for your open source project. HTML content is easier for most people to consume compared to a github repo with README.md.

* Speak at a conference or meetup. A great way to get started with this is to give a 5 minute lighting talk demo for the project at your local language meetup.

Doing these things will help you market yourself and your open source work.
This usually opens the door to networking with people that have similar
interests, which is a great way to further your career.

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gamesbrainiac
The simplest way is to put your contributions on your resume, and many (good)
companies will actually ask you to explain what your contributions were. Many
companies see active OS contributions to be a big plus.

So, you don't have actively leverage it, the companies that value your OS
contributions will see it as a big plus point in your resume.

However, what you can do is leverage the power of the OS community to get
jobs. This can be very useful when first starting out.

~~~
WilandOr1903
That makes sense. So far, most of the recent interviews I've had have asked me
about my work experience, and none of my open-source work, even though that
work is on my CV.

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gamesbrainiac
Are your open source contributions small or are they large, like contributions
to a well known database or a well known web framework?

~~~
WilandOr1903
They're for a (somewhat) niche iOS project, so not terribly well-known.

~~~
gamesbrainiac
Then therein lies the problem. If you want large returns, you need to make
good contributions to large or well known projects.

Otherwise, your work really has no context in which it can be judged
favorably.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
No, that is absolutely not a problem. If an interviewer is interested in your
OSS contributions, hes's not going to be any less impressed because it's a
project he's never heard of.

The simple fact that you have OSS on your resume makes you stand out. Period.
I have seen exactly _one_ resume with OSS on it in all the years I conducted
interviews.

One.

~~~
WilandOr1903
That's actually quite encouraging, so thank you. I've been trying to find a
balance between working on OSS contributions + getting better at "CS
fundamentals" (I'm a self-taught programmer, so a bit lacking on the algs/data
structures side of things). Which is definitely a disadvantage during an
interview, and part of the reason I'm hoping to emphasize my OSS contributions
more.

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akg_67
How do you list your open source contributions on your resume? Unless you are
applying to SV based, startup, technology company, just listing open source
contribution under "Open Source Contribution" title is not going to have much
impact.

You have to customize the information depending on the company and how likely
the group you are applying to cares about open source contribution or connects
the dots.

Considering you are contributing to _iOS_ open source project and assuming you
are applying to iOS/mobile related opportunities, I will suggest listing your
contributions under "Professional Activities" or "Personal iOS/Mobile
Activities/Projects'.

In iOS area, you might be better off creating your own side app and listing
that on resume than open source contributions.

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meir_yanovich
Look for company's which are using the OpenSource projects you are
contributing to .

~~~
WilandOr1903
Unfortunately (as of right now), there are no large companies that are using
the projects I contribute to (there are some great indie devs who are though!)

