Open Source Helps New IT Grads Get Foot in the Door 128
Yes, some US IT jobs are disappearing, but Linux.com (which shares a corporate overlord with Slashdot) has a recent story emphasizing the job advantage that involvement in open source projects can give young programmers who aren't planning to ditch their dreams of making a living in the field. The article focuses on one programmer's experience with Google's Summer of Code, which led directly to her job working on the Drupal content-management system. But the underlying message (that involvement in open source projects provides a background of experience otherwise difficult to obtain because of the chicken-and-egg problem of "experience required" job opportunities) is generalizable to many other forms of open-source involvement. Do you have a job that you landed because of your unpaid open-source programming?
But how does it help non programmers and PHB who s (Score:4, Interesting)
But how does it help non programmers and PHB who say they want job experience in a office not side / school work?
Re:But how does it help non programmers and PHB wh (Score:5, Insightful)
only if the office PHB is not a moron.
If the PHB discounts your OSS work, you REALLY DO NOT want to work there.
Consider it a "has a clue" flag in the database. If they dont like the OSS work, the OSS flag is not set and you should exclude that place from your dataset.
What about PHB in HR as well the other HR people (Score:2)
What about PHB in HR as well the other HR people.
We want you to have real job experience and you don't get past them and to the real IT people who like work like that.
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Agreed. For my last promotion HR didn't consider me "qualified enough" even though my boss assured them that I was more than capable of taking on the increased responsibilities. In the end the job posting had to be retracted, and the job description/requirements rewritten in order to fit my paper credentials more closely.
Now, this was for an existing employee (me) that was already known to the people who would do the final hiring. If you were some unknown applicant out of college however, you'd get tosse
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Unfortunately there are a lot of places where that kind of reasoning is applied by almost all HR drones and hiring managers. That's the reason for me going back to school to take a couple of "mickey mouse" courses, to be able to put stuff like "basic linux administration skills" on my resumé without having every company I apply for a job with dismiss me as "another loser who downloaded and installed Ubuntu and now thinks he's God's gift to UNIX administration" even though I state quite clearly that I h
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Anyway, any place that looks at those certifications is likely to eat up anything you tell them anyway, because they usually don't know any better. A place where they ask you technical questions usually won't care where you learned the stuff, as long as you know your shit. I prefer the later type of setting myself.
Well, it's not that these courses are useless, it's just that most of the stuff in them is stuff I knew how to do back in the late 90's (and which are apparently considered advanced UNIX skills these days, like building apache+mysql+php on your own instead of running Synaptic and clicking on Apache, MySQL and PHP followed by the "install selected packages" button). So I'm basically taking these courses so that potential employers will know I'm not lying about my skills.
/Mikael
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Why not just lie if you already know the material?
Employers may check degrees but they are not going to check on whether or not you actually completed a couple of night courses.
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I guess I'm just too honest, I really hate lying in that way. In many ways I think this is a serious hindrance when it comes to finding a good job, other candidates will gladly say they're experts at whatever the company wants them to be experts at and I'll tell the truth, guess who gets the interview/job?
But honestly, I'm happier knowing I'm not where I am because of my own dishonesty.
/Mikael
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I agree, it's not very tough, but compared to clicking on "PHP" and then "Yes" when asked if you want Apache and MySQL as well it's pretty damn hard in the eyes of most people. And the type of skill is different.
Also, you're forgetting about things like build order, you can't DL and compile php and apache before MySQL, and you forgot about the --prefix argument for the configure script. I'm still not implying this is rocket science, just that knowing how to properly build these three pieces of software take
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The best thing I have come away with using Linux is a better
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Well, I do know how to code C and have changed the configure scripts of various pieces of software on many occassions, nice AC attempt at an ad hominem attack though.
Also, being able to understand "To instals teh inartwebz servar u clic teh 'intarwebs servur' buton n like install" isn't the same as understanding a 10 kiB INSTALL file with sections named "Compilers and options", "Compiling for multiple architectures", "Defining variables" and so on...
/Mikael
Re:But how does it help non programmers and PHB wh (Score:4, Interesting)
"only if the office PHB is not a moron."
Not really. I see lots of open source contribution as more likely to leak commercial code into open source projects.
Also, with the FSF going after all of these companies in court over GPL violations, why would I want to take a risk on a programmer that might "accidentally" add GPLd code in our codebase and risk the entire company's IP.
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PHP: - Sorry, OSS work does not count, besides I have never heard of that project. Have you done any real work in your life? ...
Linus: -
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These skills then easily transferable to the other Unix OSs such as HP-UX, AIX, Solaris etc. which you're unlikely to ever touch unless you're paid to do so.
Sounds like... (Score:5, Interesting)
Sounds like its not so much open source involvement, but generally ANY involvement with your field, helps. And thats true for any job, any field, anything. In IT, you could simply do unpaid internships and get similar results. Its just a bit easier to get involved in open source, because you can jump in a project just by writing patches and open they get accepted, and go from there...
But really, any field. Doing some volunteer work has always helped landing a job, its nothing new.
Re:Sounds like... (Score:5, Interesting)
That's besides the point (Score:3, Insightful)
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I'd actually disagree with that. People have circumstances and opportunities that land them different paid jobs -- and resumes will never tell you if they truly love doing the job. Many people end up doing a certain job because it falls in their lap.
However, someone who volunteers with open source not only clearly loves what they're doing, but allows you (the potential employer) to see the quality of code they've created, how they interact with other project team members, and how they guide the direction
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Well, its why I compared it to volunteer work (as in, not paid!).
You are still right overall, but one point where things clash (and why a lot of employers don't give a flying duck about volunteer work... I know... I've done a lot, and its extremely rare for an employer to care at all, though it does happen), is that on a real job, you don't always end up doing what you feel like. You don't pick your project, the people you work with, and if in the morning you don't feel like doing it, you do it -anyway-.
Bei
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Newsflash! (Score:5, Funny)
Details at 11!
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It may not be "legal", but it still seems to be a thriving business within the city limits. Go figure.
p.s. Pahrump is northwest of Las Vegas...
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Doesn't work for me (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been working on my open source project [sf.net] for three years and that doesn't help me a bit when looking for a job in Dublin (Ireland, not Ohio). Basically there's a very few jobs out there in which you can program in C or anything vaguely signal processing-related and they all want you to have at least three years of commercial experience, don't care if you've got the snazziest open source project out there.
And I've been looking for a job for over 5 months now, and mainly in tech support and system administration because really, no one wants to hire me for a coding job.
Re:Doesn't work for me (Score:5, Funny)
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Maybe you should get off your ARSS and try working for a different open source project?
*pa-da-pshhh!* [instantrimshot.com] ;-)
Re:Doesn't work for me (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been working on my open source project [dal.net] for about ten years now, and it has played a major role in every single job that I've held.
I got my present job through someone I worked on the project with. I've been there 4.5 years.
I also got involved in a local unix users group by way of hearing about it from some friends of the open source project. The connections I made at that users group have gotten me the job I will be starting in one month.
My open source project, however idle it has been for the last several years, has contributed significantly and directly to my career.
And I've been looking for a job for over 5 months now, and mainly in tech support and system administration because really, no one wants to hire me for a coding job.
Get used to it. Unless you want to crank out business rules written in Java, systems administration/engineering/architecture is the place to be, IMHO. In those teams you can actually do work in C, mess around inside the kernel, and actually make use of all your skills. "Programmers" these days actually seem pretty boring unless you're working for a tech company that has an exceptional software engineering department doing something interesting.
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Coincidentaly, I've landed on my current job (network programming for games) by doing some code for open source IRCds.
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You have the answer right there in black and white - and it's not the answer you thought it was ...
I got my present job through someone ... ...
The connections I made at that users group have gotten me the job
Sitting at home haxoring F/OSS in your underware isn't going to help anyone's long term career.
Interacting with other people, contributing to a common goal in a collaborative fashion where you establish yourself in the minds of influential people as someone that delivers quality work - THIS is what open
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I have been a UNIX systems administrator for over a decade. The only messing around in C language I have ever done on the job is in trying to get a program I downloaded to compile on my particular platform. With packaging of applications becoming more dominant, I do this less now. Messing around with the kernel is also rather limited, other than say changing the semaphore and shared memory segments on a Solaris because it will be running Oracle.
As far as an engineering/architecture group, few places I ha
Re:Doesn't work for me (Score:5, Insightful)
Because you are doing it wrong, marketing yourself wrong.
I trot out my OSS projects not as "I work on this free thing on the side" but as "I invented and designed product X, I am a volunteer lead developer for Project Y, and I saved project Z and single handed brought it from a failure to a viable product.
You need to take marketing classes, you gotta market yourself and network hard with people in the field. Hell get an article published in Dr Dobbs or another programming rag and your value goes up even farther.
You market yourself as a one trick pony. you gotta have a list of tricks to dazzle them.
Re:Doesn't work for me (Score:4, Interesting)
Lumpy is correct, and that goes for everything, every job, open source, close source, non-software job, everything. All job market experts and professional resume writers will confirm it, too.
When you write your resume (or talk during an interview), you don't say "I worked on XYZ". No one gives a flying duck about what you worked on, because there's at least 10000 people who worked on the same thing, no matter how niche. What people care (and not only dumb ass PHBs and HR), is your achievements. The net gain you provided, the "out of the ordinary" stuff that pushes you ahead of others.
So that line : "and I saved project Z and single handed brought it from a failure to a viable product" is the most important one of the bunch, and thats a sure fire job lander.
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When you write your resume (or talk during an interview), you don't say "I worked on XYZ". No one gives a flying duck about what you worked on, because there's at least 10000 people who worked on the same thing, no matter how niche. What people care (and not only dumb ass PHBs and HR), is your achievements. The net gain you provided, the "out of the ordinary" stuff that pushes you ahead of others.
So that line : "and I saved project Z and single handed brought it from a failure to a viable product" is the most important one of the bunch, and thats a sure fire job lander.
Unless said statement trips the interviewer's BS meter like it did mine. A solid contribution to something related to the job or even better that the company uses is a better choice.
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It's more to do with the country/region you're trying to look for a job in. Here in India, freelancing, internship, FOSS work does nothing to impress most employers. Quote one manager: "It cannot be counted as valid experience since I'm sure you must not have handled major responsibilities as you would now in a full time job". Yeah, single-handedly migrating applications from Oracle to PostgreSQL and deploying them into production in 2 weeks is not a job requiring responsibility.
I show off my FOSS ( ayttm [sf.net]
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The trouble with marketing is that whatever you do, it isn't enough. Someone can always come along and market better, and in any case, the person who responds better to marketing than good solid evidence is probably not the person anyone really wants as a boss (unless being told to use X-of-the-week, even if it's manifestly unsuitable for the task at hand, appeals).
If marketing is the answer, the question is wrong.
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So you have been working for 3 years on the project, but hasn't managed to get it into a first version yet? No wonder you can't get a job if you can't show ability to get stuff out the door.
Also, ARSS? In the beginning you called it ARSE - Yes that might be tong in cheek and kind of fun, but for a company hiring it doesn't exactly signal maturity.
Remember you are pointing them to this project saying "this is what I can do!" and when they go there you show them that you are a lazy guy who doesn't get his thi
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So you have been working for 3 years on the project, but hasn't managed to get it into a first version yet? No wonder you can't get a job if you can't show ability to get stuff out the door.
What the hell are you drivelling about? That's like saying that the eMule project "hasn't managed to get it into a first version yet". Just because the version number starts with a 0. Ridiculous. As for the project name, when you try to think of an acronym for it you can only come up with A's and S's. And anything that wasn't an acronym sucked.
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Then don't use the acronym, name it! If the name is too long, then rename it to something shorter and easier to remember.
And just because someone else hasn't released "full" version doesn't make it right. You are the one searching for a job, what count is peoples view of your project(s).
And don't get jumpy about it, I work for an IT company and we do hire C/C++ programmers, and I am one of those sitting across the table. I checked out your site and my response is the same as if you would have applied where
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Well thank you for your insight, I appreciate. I'm glad to know that there are people out there in charge of recruiting me who would dismiss my work based on the fact that its version number starts with a 0, like it's more important than what it actually does?
No offense but I think I'll keep it like this, sounds like a good way to weed out people who need a clue ;-)
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Again, you are not reading my comments correctly. You take everything personal, when you are seeking a job its just business, but suit yourself, I'm not the one looking for a job for 5 months...
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How are potential employers supposed to know that your project is of any value at all? Your version number indicates you don't consider it anywhere close to a first release. Your website says it is painfully slow and lacks precision. It also says that you've never really used it for anything because you're too busy developing it.
It would appear to be a hobby project and while I doubt it is hurting you, employers want to see how it shows your ability to contribute to a product (meaning, something with a s
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How are potential employers supposed to know that your project is of any value at all? Your version number indicates you don't consider it anywhere close to a first release. Your website says it is painfully slow and lacks precision. It also says that you've never really used it for anything because you're too busy developing it.
Wow, you're right, I didn't realise until now how poor a marketer I was. By being too honest from an insider point of view I make it all sound quite bad. I guess I should put more positivity in my statements. And maybe a zest of sensationalism?
By the way, isn't the list of things it can do at the beginning of the front page enough?
As for that whole first release thing, I was pretty much planning to never reach that famous "first release" thing, as in, do like a bunch of FOSS projects do and go on with t
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Try adding some pictures to your site, maybe flash, and throw in a dancing poodle if you have time. A PHB is going to see an all text website with a lot of text and code, and his eyes are going to glaze over while his drool begins to obscure the contact info on your resume. Somebody who sees the presentation for what it is will still look for more information and check out the code.
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Re:Doesn't work for me (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate to say it, but that's a pretty arcane bit of coding you've done there. Having taken a sound processing class at university, I'd probably hire you on the spot if the damn thing works like you say it does. Purely on the "If he can figure out how to do this on his own, he'll probably figure out whatever I set him" theory. On the other hand, a lot of people are going to look at this like it's an impractical exercise outside of a few very specific applications.
You might try volunteering some time on a larger project with a more understandable goal. This gives you a) practical experience working with a team (usually pretty important in development work), b) something that an average manager will understand when you show them what you did, and c) a potential reference from someone else in the team who is already in industry and thus has standing to recommend you.
Your personal project has two thing working against it as useful "experience". First, few people are going to really understand what you did, or how difficult it was. Second, you're not actually getting what they would consider useful professional experience. "Real" projects are developed by teams, with schedules, check-ins and outs, a team leader that everyone else reports to, and some sort of hierarchical development plan. This is often more than half of what companies want to see when they ask for "experience". They assume people learned how to pound code into an IDE in in university, they want to see that you can fit into a dev team and do your part.
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Bad me for replying to my own comment, but I've just read you response to someone else and this occurred to me. Have you considered going back for an advanced degree and getting a research job? Guys at universities and national labs (at least here in the US) get to work on esoteric stuff like this all day.
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Well, I'm speaking from an exclusively US based perspective here, so don't quote me, YMMV, etc.
Usually to do research at a university you have to have a PhD. You get your PhD, spend a few years (anywhere from 4-8 depending on job availability and your own record of accomplishments) working for someone else as a "Post-Doc" helping with their research, and then you can get a junior faculty position somewhere and start doing your own research.
You can also find jobs doing pure research type CS stuff at the big
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I agree with the parent that your OSS project clearly shows you've got no lack of raw brainpower. Kudos, that's hardcore stuff.
However, there are MANY other facets to landing a job -- personality matters. For example, there's no shortage of brainy developers in the world who have that annoying know-it-all attitude. Yes, they're smart, but nobody would be willing to work alongside them.
I'm not saying this is your problem. But if call center tech support is your last employment option, it sounds like the
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There is no ticket to a free job. If you can't sell yourself, it doesn't matter how great your experience is. But even if you're the greatest self-promoter in the world, you still have to bust your ass for that job. That's life.
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After briefly looking at your project page, I am sure you can find a job that involves C and signal processing. Dublin might not be the right place. Why not look into moving to an area with more telecom companies? I think your skills are very marketable..
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Considering how neat your project is, I'm suprised it hasn't been more helpful. I've played with it for several hours, just creating sounds and trying to pluck out elements from music just using my eyeball and photoshop.
Somebody should make "sound-o-grams" with it and use them with cellphones like those square 2d barcodes.
To speak nothing of the opportunities to use the word steganosonography.
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Hehe yeah I already had an idea like your "sound-o-grams" thing, it well be a spectrogram with a = sign at its beginning and end. You could acquire a picture with a cellphone's camera, then detect the two = signs so you'd know that there's a sound there, when it starts, when it ends, and the vertical and horizontal of each = sign would give you the synthesis parameters, so you could automatically synthesise a sound photographed from say something on a wall or a poster and hear it as it was intended to be he
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As some others have pointed out, you probably aren't using the project effectively in your resume and interview. I've looked through your code and it's reasonably good -- definitely enough to get you a leg up.
So there are a few things you need to do. First, you should identify the skill sets you used to develop your project -- gathering requests from users, C programming, math programming, design, etc, etc, etc. Put these on your resume in a "skills" section.
Create a special section in your resume for "O
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Worked for me (Score:5, Insightful)
I was working for my university as a student in the IT department and implementing an open-source portal. Ended up getting a job offer with a company that provided consulting for said project. Now that I'm four years into working with the project and on my second employer (voluntary change) having open-source project experience while in college and after opens a lot of doors. Beyond just the development experience if you become heavily involved in a project it can also speak volumes about your interpersonal and team skills.
It has been very valuable to me (Score:1, Interesting)
I have created open source programs as teaching aids that I also use as code examples which I've provided to employers.
That was a prime factor in landing my current job, one I've held for ten years now.
The projects illustrated key elements of my resume beyond coding skills, such as project management.
I also developed an open source program that was invited for inclusion on DEC's demo CD for their Alpha line.
That was quite a while ago, of course, but I noted it on my resume and it has been a talking point th
Unsure in Seattle (Score:5, Funny)
Do you have a job that you landed because of you unpaid open-source programming?
I lost my last job for using the dead compile times for working on my pet open source project. Then I found another job, so you can say I landed there because of my unpaid open-source programming. Does that count?
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obligatory comment: http://xkcd.com/303/ [xkcd.com] Compiling!
My IT experience (Score:4, Interesting)
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A little... (Score:3, Informative)
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Working with Linux helped me get my first job (Score:5, Interesting)
I got my degree in Physics, but my career path after that was in IT. My first job (January, 1995) was working as a UNIX systems administrator at a small geographics company. What helped me land the job despite having a different educational background was first-hand "experience" with Linux (SLS and Slackware.) I was the first at my university to try Linux (1993) so I became a sort of go-to guy for Linux questions when the CompSci students started to install it, and the university IT staff put it up on a few systems to try it out. "Something break? Happened to me too once, let me help you fix it."
When I graduated, and it was time to look for a job, a friend recommended me for the UNIX sysadmin job at her company. The fact that I'd had two years experience working with Linux, helping others to install it and get it working for them, really gave me a boost during the interview. I got the job.
Yes, this could have turned out the same if I'd just been helping at the computer labs (which I didn't, but others might have.) I think what gave me the extra edge was spending so much time with it at home, so when the technical interview questions came up, I was able to answer them very well. Nothing beats spending that extra time on your own desktop system, when you'll eventually mess something up and have to learn stuff on your own to get it working again and know how not break it a second time. That kind of "experience" says a lot to a hiring manager.
Worked for me (Score:5, Interesting)
First "real" tech job I interviewed for had a job description focused around porting and packaging software -- two things I'd already been doing for fun (building RPMs for whatever the current Red Hat was at the time, and porting software to my university's Solaris and IRIX boxes); the CTO (well, it was less than a 20-person shop at the time) was floored by my level of relevant experience.
I landed the interview in the first place through some folks I met helping out at the university LUG. So yes -- of course -- open source experience helps. That employer was an embedded Linux shop, and learning from some of the other folks they had on staff (a bunch of kernel developers, including two of Linus's lieutenants, a gdb maintainer, and a bunch of other really bright folks) is what I credit for getting my career off in the right direction; every job I've held since then has included some level of interaction with the open source community, and I've had a great deal of fun.
Its all about networking and communication (Score:2, Insightful)
I created a business with my open source work (Score:5, Interesting)
I built a business with unpaid open source programming. I say unpaid, because even though I was working as a consultant, the paid hours were very few and far between. I worked thousand upon thousands of hours over a period of years building a software package that sustains me to this day, almost thirteen years later.
At the time I did it though, there was a dearth of open source software. The space I chose, the electronic shopping cart, was wide open, and people were crying for anything that worked and was supported.
That is the key -- support. Decent programming and software is a must, but it doesn't need to be knock-your-socks-off great. If you can demonstrate you will be reliably there, month after month, year after year, I believe you be able to do what I did.
However, I don't think it has much to do with "50,000 IT jobs lost". What I described takes hard work and initiative, as does any substantive contribution to an open source software package. The people demonstrating that type of ability are not the ones who are marginalized.
Other way... (Score:1)
Open Source Project Helped (Score:2)
When I interviewed for the developer job I've now held for the last seven years, the clincher was all of the Open Source projects I had written up to that point; particularly my Yahoo group chat client (RiffRaff, which has long since become obsolete). Good interview skills helped, but the long list of useful (at least to me) Open Source software I had created was what impressed the interviewers the most.
The general impression I made was that if I needed something, I didn't wait around for someone else to h
What about Linus? (Score:4, Interesting)
Open Source didn't really help him land a job for what 9 years?
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Linus was hired by Transmeta in... 1997? The Linux kernel was original published in 1991.
That's 6 years from the first release of the kernel, mind you.
Volunteering did it for me (Score:1)
No post-high-school education here, but spending insane amounts of time beta testing, packaging, proof-reading documentation and generally getting my hands very very dirty with one particular Linux distribution landed me a job as a packager/documenter with the distro, and last month I "celebrated" my 8 year anniversary working with the same company (now working on security).
The thing that got me in, besides obvious skill, was the volunteer work and passion I put into the company so the end result was they
Experience (Score:3, Insightful)
Some of you younglings may think experience is overrated, that your degree from a party university should give you a free entry into an immediately high paying job. But this is the real world. Degrees are a dime a dozen and most resumes are padded. You need to prove to us old fogeys not just that you can code, but that you can code well, know how to design, now how to work in teams, won't go on a three month drinking binge the first time you get a bug logged against your software.
We want experience!
That's what internships are for. But getting an internship is almost as difficult as getting a regular position. Open Source Software lets you create your own internship. It lets you put down real experience on your resume. Even if you have real world experience, a lot of your code won't be public. But your Open Source Software will be, and interviewers can see your actual code.
Worked for me (Score:1)
I learned these skills while developing a web site on the side (w/ some downloadable code projects). Not only did posting my resume on the web site get me the cold call from a recruiter, but the web site also impressed the company that later hired me. Pl
Two points (Score:1, Troll)
1. redacted.
2. How does one work for Drupal? It's not a company, it's a piece of software.
Why I'm skeptical about the career value (Score:4, Interesting)
I happen to be a F/OSS advocate. But, I'm a little skeptical about the career value of volunteering your time for F/OSS projects. The problems, as I see it, are:
1) Most employers want five years of recent, verifiable, full-time, professional experience. That would be an awful lot of time to volunteer.
2) Offshore, and guest workers are still much cheaper. Maybe it's best for Americans to give up on software development, and let the offshore workers have it.
3) Even if an American can manage to get a development job, salaries are going down the toilet, as the market becomes glutted.
Both presidential candidates, and almost all of congress, are pushing for more guest workers. Bill Gates is petitioning for unlimited guest workers. Once the election is over, I think guest worker caps will be raised substantially, if not eliminated entirely.
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(Disclaimer: I'm the person in the interview who blabbed on and on about how awesome open source is as a career move. ;))
This actually is far more an argument *for* working in an open source project than against.
When people think about the idea of using open source as a career launching pad, they generally think of two things:
But
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1) Most employers want five years of recent, verifiable, full-time, professional experience.
2) Offshore, and guest workers are still much cheaper.
3) Even if an American can manage to get a development job, salaries are going down the toilet.
So FS work won't get you a job at an offshoring low-paying company that wants 5 years experience for a graduate salary? Oh, big loss missing-out on that job... NOT!
Re: (Score:2)
I dunno. I do a combination of software development and sysadmin work, and have a major say in all tech hirings at my company.
Frankly, time spent among the meritocracy that most large open-source programs develop is one of the best experiences for a programmer that I can think of. You learn to do stuff right, or get chunks torn off your behind when it's not. You learn that ego has no place in your profession.
And you prove you can work to very high standards.
We're not looking for ${EXPERIENCE} or ot
Re: (Score:1)
Please don't become a parent. That takes about 18 years. If you can't even commit a paltry, pathetic, five years to a project, why even bother hiring you? You'll be out the door too soon to really matter. I'll assume you're young, and know nothing about dedicating your life to your work, so "five years" is big. Maybe, as you get older, you might see why 30, or eve
Visibility and community... (Score:2)
...are a big part of it. If you develop some software, and get it out there where people can try it, and comment on it, and you can react to those comments, it says a great deal about the skill set you possess. Generally speaking, open source is going to be the quickest way to accomplish this.
Our CS students seem to understand this innately - many of them develop open source projects - small, relatively specialized ones that are appropriate to to some of the specialties that exist in our department. To s
Foot in the door (Score:1)
From EST, I went on to work for IBM, largely on my previous Linux and
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Why, pray-tell, would IBM have Solaris people? I imagine even mentioning Solaris at IBM would get the AIX team to kill -9 you.
If you use or develop open source... (Score:2, Insightful)
..you are never "unpaid". Never. The immediate and primary currency -your pay- you receive at all times and in as large of amounts as you wish is other peoples code they freely share. You can take this huge amount that is out there and use it for any purpose you want, including engaging in this thing called "business" where you can get paid in another form of currency if you desire. If you want to know where computers and code are used so you can "get paid" in central bankers currency while working "a job",
Open Source Projects (Score:2, Insightful)
Is it time to flood the market (Score:2)
with open sourced direct competitors to large scale apps (smaller than, say, MS Windows, but on the scale of AutoCAD, etc.)?
I'd like to see a world where those new outsourced East Indian millionaire and sub-millionaire programmers are forced to compete heavily with FREE software.
Make everything open source and completely poison the IT offshore programming market. Nobody (at least no consumer, and few businesses but the really biggest ones) pays for commercial stuff because they can get it for free on freshm
Do I? (Score:2)
Do you have a job that you landed because of your unpaid open-source programming?
No, but technically I did do lots of personal projects that I wasn't paid for, and just never released it. Which most definitely helped land me my first job.
The reading comment.. (Score:1)
Anyone reading less than some 25 books a year is less likely to improve as fast as people who read a lot.
Okay, I gotta say this one is not necessarily true. I, for instance, tend to read about 10 books a year. Each is dense, and usually no less than 900 pages in length. Compare this with some of the people who work in my office. Several of them probably read 3 books a week, but still can't wrap their head around the fact that if they keep continuously clicking the "Search" button, it will take longer for their search to complete.
Now, there's a few possible reasons for this. The first one could be that
Re: (Score:2)
>>If you are good, you'll get a job.
But will you be able to keep it? At my last job, the entire department was offshored to Argentina. Everybody was doing a good job, but Argentina was cheaper.
Maybe you can get a job if you are good, but can also expect to be training your replacement within two years.
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Nearly 3/4 of our development staff has already been shipped off to Bangalore. And guess what? The productivity and quality of that offshore code is terrible. However, that does nothing to slow the trend. The fact is, my company can hire 3 of them for every one of us, without having to worry about benefits or labor laws.
I am good. My code is good. I am also looking for a new gig because "good" means jack any more. I hope you can fall back on your minor.
The job search has not been very productive. It