As an employer, do you view open source contributions with as much credit as fulltime employment?

Question

I'm currently contributing to a few open source projects to keep me busy as I am in between jobs.

From an employer's point of view, is this just as credible as working in a company in terms of experience? Some people may hold a stigma and think that you were sitting at home and you weren't dealing with a large codebase or using your skills as much as you would in a company. This is utter tripe in my opinion though, as my experience of employment has involved a codebase of only 1,000 lines of simple code. At least with open source projects I guess I have to write code which someone else may depend on in a very lage codebase. These sort of views come from people who aren't IT employers but do IT employers hold this view?

I'm trying to tackle the problem of having a gap in my experience in terms of time. Would this be a good way to go about it?

Also, I would get references once what I write is approved/integrated and I have proof of the work so I guess there shouldn't be a problem but some employers may be fussy.

Thanks

Answer 1

Personally, I would think it was good as it shows a passion for coding.

However, I don't believe that many people in a hiring position would think the same.

Answer 2

Yes, anything that demonstrates craftsmanship, a willingness to learn new technologies, the ability to work with others on a team and the ability to write works for me. And, yes, I own the company and have the final say in hiring.

Answer 3

I think it depends on how the hiring manager, and perhaps the company as a whole, view open source. Most companies I've encountered, unless they are collectively completely anti-open source, see such work as equivalent to "on-the-job" experience. I've even been head-hunted by large companies based on my open-source contributions.

Also, even if the company you're interviewing at isn't too interested in open source, it never hurts to have recent code samples that you can submit.

Answer 4

I would personally count it as I am fairly active in the open source community, but in some organizations managers do not necessarily see the value in it, they will at times discredit opensource thinking that it is low quality.

Overall, I would potentially list the contributions on a resume as "other accomplishments" with highlights of major submissions, or approved items. But you will want to feel the employer out to see how much detail you mention in an interview.

My personal opinion is anything that you can do to keep your skills sharp, and to expose yourself to different coding methods, styles, practices the better you will be as a programmer. Also contributions to open source typically show a certain passion level for coding, which is a huge force that guides success.

Answer 5

"Working for a company" tells nothing of experience except for your ability to function under company rules.

"Open source" has some rules too. If you think that ability to follow them is a pro for an employer, then go on, put it onto your resume.

Answer 6

If you want full credit from a potential employer for having worked on an OSS project, it really helps to have an official, documentable role in the project that can be looked up on a reputable OSS hosting site.

Beyond that, be ready to document what you did for the project. If OSS experience will get you through the door, bring code samples and explain your contribution. You're going to need to overcome a certain amount of skepticism.

In the past, I've had problems with recruiters because my resume has a number of firms on it that no longer exist (yay, finance!) OSS can be even more nebulous than that. If you're relying on it to build the impression you give, you're going to have to expect a fair amount of resistance.

Quick edit: I forgot to add what I always mention with these answers. One secret to a happy career is to build a resume meant to attract employers you're going to enjoy. If you think you want to work for a shop that values OSS contributions, feature them prominently. They'll help the right employer find you.

Answer 7

My personal view when contemplating a hire is that open source credentials are a plus especially when backed by commercial experience (and I don't mean big heavy app servers, just workplace experience).

I am always very wary of commercial framework specialists/evangelists who have a heavy bias due to their Oracle/WebSphere/Tibco/Name-your-huge-app competency accreditation since it tends to suggest a certain kind of mindset.

Open source people are passionate, they innately want to re-use rather than re-invent, they might be more likely to use TDD aggressively and appropriately and most importantly they aren't locked into a given high-cost skill set either.

Answer 8

I think that contributing to open source projects is certainly better than doing nothing but I really don't see how it can be given as much weight as real employment.

When contributing to open source projects, there's no accountability or way to really prove you're a capable employee. There's no one overseeing your progress, keeping you to a schedule, etc.

With open source projects, you get to choose what you want to work on, and you work at your own pace. This is very different than a company environment where you need to do what's asked of you and keep to a schedule.

Answer 9

The skills and experience are different. Writing code is such a small part of working as a programmer, that merely writing code at home is insufficient to demonstrate experience.

It does demonstrate passion, and that you code for fun, two key things I look for in candidates.

Beyond that it depends on the project.

If you've launched your own open source project I'm going to evaluate the project concept, whether you've actually shipped a release, and how well commented and documented it is much more closely then the actual code quality. (and also if you're re-inventing the wheel)

If you've been made a contributor on a large, established project, then that starts to look a lot like corporate work experience, and assuming you're making substantive contributions, then yeah, that I'd count that when reviewing employment. (and ask you questions accordingly about challenges/accomplishments, so be ready)

Answer 10

It would depend on how well you can document what you've been doing. If you had reputable references for your contributions and your contributions were significant, then I would say they would be roughly equivalent in terms of experience. Unfortunately, working on open source projects leaves open the whole team dynamics area since most of this are highly distributed and not directly applicable to most development environments.

Answer 11

The funny thing is that no employer questions my employment, yet I've been in a role where I work alone and being the only coder, there is no other coder, little supervision, etc. So I guess an employer can't complain about what I've been doing in the open source world, compared to my actual employment history.

While I agree that writing code is a small part of programming, there is a difference between writing code for myself (in jobs I've had) and code which will be used by someone else (in an OS project). The latter requires better quality, etc.

With regards to monitoring progress etc, that is true, there is nobody to keep an eye on that, unless you have a colleague on an IM tool breathing down your neck.

Also, some jobs require telecommuting (e.g. you work fulltime for a company, but at home) or you remotely manage developers who are overseas. Bit like a Project Manager does with some devs in another country, like India, famously. So I don't really see this as a reason for an open source contribution to be viewed down upon in relation to an actual job. I've had jobs where my superiors have gone on holiday without any notice, etc, so the monitoring in a job isn't exactly in full force.

Also, there are guidelines and rules in an open source project, so it's not all lose in terms of monitoring, policies, etc.

Answer 12

Experience is not just experience. While open source work can be valued it will be viewed in a different light then working with an established company on a project with a group of people. Doing the latter shows that you can work with people, manage a deadline, and that the company has vetted your skills. For open source work to be equivelent to this you better have some kind of offical position on the project.

Of course, the open source work will give you something to talk about at an interview, and this should never be undervalued. Being able to "ramble" about projects you have worked on in the past is perhaps the most imperative part of an interview, and can set you apart from other applicants.

Don't discredit the skills you have gained either, and if you are a unexperienced hire having open source experience instead of no experience will definitely be beneficial.

Answer 13

As an employer I would look at open source work as simply further evidence of a person's skill.

I'd however look at the following.

1. Could the person actually demonstrate the work was theirs and not just be trading on another persons effort.

2. I would like the fact that you had been working on the open source project instead of doing nothing, but would have concerns why you were doing this rather than not just getting a job. I'm not discounting the person, just wanting to completely understand the motivation. Some people that who have been doing this, or free lance work for too long become almost unemployable in a more traditional team work environment.

3. Additionally I would want to know where the person's "heart" is. I like people that want to come to work for me, I don't tend to take people on that just want a pay check and work all night on their real passion. Of course there is a balance here, but I'd ask a few questions.

4. I'd also want to know my intellectual property isn't going to end up in that project without my support or knowledge. I'd want to agree to some boundaries and privacy in advance.

Apart from that, skill is skill, experience is experience and if the work is in the areas appropriate to me the fact the project is open source, or on your time is kind of irrelevant.

All the best

Stephen

Answer 14

Personally, I would be excited to meet an interviewee who has worked on open source projects. This shows a passion for programming, and a willingness to learn and grow. Commercial experience is good too, but if you don't program as a hobby you are probably not very passionate about the profession and won't contribute more than the minimum.