I started working on OSS as a way to learn at the age of 18. I learned much more about programming and working with others than I learned in school. Plus, having a program that I work on be in the top #5 for downloads on SF back in the day was a bit of a cool factor.
Now these days, more than 10 years later, I have a family to support so most of my OSS contributions are fixing bugs that are show stoppers for me, in existing projects. I have open sourced a few very small things that I use for myself, in hopes that it saves some people from wasting time on doing something that has already been done.
EDIT:
I used to always think that it would help me out in getting a job, but the only way it helped me out was that I had a lot of experience. Having a OSS project on my resume never really helped out it seemed, in the jobs that I got.
Now these days, more than 10 years later, I have a family to support so most of my OSS contributions are fixing bugs that are show stoppers for me, in existing projects. I have open sourced a few very small things that I use for myself, in hopes that it saves some people from wasting time on doing something that has already been done.
EDIT:
I used to always think that it would help me out in getting a job, but the only way it helped me out was that I had a lot of experience. Having a OSS project on my resume never really helped out it seemed, in the jobs that I got.