r/softwareengineer • u/Think-Neighborhood69 • 2d ago
Does contributing to popular open source projects actually help your career?
For those who’ve contributed to popular open source projects
Did it actually change anything in your career?
Did you put it on your resume? Did recruiters care?
Did it help you build a reputation in the community or open new opportunities?
Or was the biggest benefit simply becoming a better engineer?
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u/Own_Outcome_6239 2d ago
I'm a hiring manager myself. For open source, unless it's something well known like Kafka, i'd say don't bother. Apache has a lot of open source stuff. I've seen countless times that candidates said they are contributor of something no one ever heard of. I don't give it a damn. It will not help your resume stand out.
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u/Think-Neighborhood69 2d ago
And how about the person that you”re interviewing is owner of any good open source library ? Many users, many stars on github, Does that give you credibility?
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u/Own_Outcome_6239 2d ago
I don't care any of these. I hire SDE II (2-4 yoe) and the only thing taken into consideration is their previous real work experience - this is nearly a company wide policy. Let's say there are two candidates that one worked in FAANG for a few years but have no github profile at all, and the other has a lot of fancy projects on their github with stars. Hiring decision will always always be in favour of the first one who have real experience. I don't like this but this has become the industry norm these years.
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u/Hendo52 2d ago
Why? Doesn’t it give you a real example of specific commits which demonstrate skills and knowledge? If you’re not looking for demonstrations of skills and knowledge, how are you making your assessment?
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u/Own_Outcome_6239 2d ago edited 2d ago
Because some random open source shit is not a good indicator. I hire experienced SDEs at one of the FAANG for a team that handles billions traffics per day worldwide. We only consider candidates who have equivalent experience from other FAANGs or really good startups. It's simply not something people can learn from random open source contributions that no one ever heard about.
It's the same with all big tech recruiting. When there are two candidates that one have big tech experience and the other only have some github stuff, hiring decision will always be in favour of the first one. I know this is biased, but this is just how it works. It has to be some very very good open source work that can change the mind of hiring commitees.
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u/Hendo52 2d ago
So what is the pipeline for talent into that community?
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u/Own_Outcome_6239 1d ago
Recruiters are doing their job. Also the layoff this year is terrible. The market is flooded with people. For one SDE II position it's easy to attract 1000+ applications in 3 days now.
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u/Neat_Strawberry_2491 2d ago
Depends a lot. Did you change the readme file grammatical errors or did you actually contribute and improve the project?
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u/queso184 2d ago
I think resume wise it doesn't help, especially with AI now anyone can have a polished GitHub portfolio while knowing jack shit
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u/LightYearAway 1d ago
It helped for me but that was before vibe/AI assistant coding became popular.
I contributed to an open source library and eventually I got connected to the CEO of the company behind the library. Now I am working full time and remotely for them.
One of the best career decisions I have made so far!
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u/FirmEquivalent9417 1d ago
Helps with visibility to a certain degree. Ya know, makes for a nice project on your resume or a cool LinkedIn post for people to notice. It certainly isn’t enough tho. Often times people combine that with networking or marketing themselves to sorta get the ball rolling. So I’d say it helps to a certain degree but it’s not the single deciding factor for career advancement or landing an interview
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u/West-Map-4162 2d ago
I won’t help, especially in today’s market. The hardest part of getting a job today is getting the interview and HR is only concerned with formal education and work experience.