I got started by doing the online MIT labs linked here: http://nil.csail.mit.edu/6.824/2015/labs/lab-3.html http://nil.csail.mit.edu/6.824/2015/labs/lab-3.html

I got started by doing the online MIT labs linked here: http://nil.csail.mit.edu/6.824/2015/labs/lab-3.html http://nil.csail.mit.edu/6.824/2015/labs/lab-3.html You write a MapReduce/Paxos implementation in Golang, and then their test suite tests your implementation. There are many tricky edge cases, so having an automated test suite is seriously helpful. Looks like since last year they've switched from Paxos to Raft (pretty great idea, the Paxos papers are terrible), here's the latest URL: https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824/index.html https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824/index.html I would guess that any company doing distsys work would be impressed by you having a Raft or Paxos implementation on GitHub, enough to get an interview etc.