4 ms·

> I've honestly never been at a job interview where people gave a crap about my open source contributions. They're typically much more interested in hearing war

> I've honestly never been at a job interview where people gave a crap about my open source contributions. They're typically much more interested in hearing war stories from the closed source projects I've worked on. Counterpoint - I have. Many times. I created some Perl libraries (most notable <a href="https://metacpan.org/dist/DateTime">DateTime</a> https://metacpan.org/dist/DateTime">DateTime</a> and <a href="https://metacpan.org/dist/Log-Dispatch">Log-Dispatch</a> https://metacpan.org/dist/Log-Dispatch">Log-Dispatch</a>) that were used by a huge percentage of companies using Perl for applications (as opposed to simple scripts or sysadmin). This often came up in interviews, and I'm sure it helped me get more and better offers. Nowadays, as fewer companies are using Perl for applications, it's probably less helpful, but it doesn't hurt.

mumblemumble 5y ago
Ha. I had actually thought about mentioning that this situation seemed to be very different 20 years ago, but decided I had already done enough blathering. But, anyway, yeah - I think that this was different 20 years ago, back when open source hadn't quite completely disrupted the software industry and companies didn't yet understand the economics of open source.
- autarch 5y ago
  This still helped me as recently as 2017, so it's not like this stopped being true 20 years ago.
- johnnyanmac 5y ago
  I mean, I worked with someone who creates a very high profile OSS project, and I'm sure it's a big reason he got hired to where he is. I'll never say OSS is an optimal career path unless you are doing something extremely specialized (which to be fair, he is). But it sure can open doors for you even today if that's something you're passionate in. For me, I got around without any OSS, so it's more like a post-career plan now to help out some beloved repos. (as long as you're not stupid, like showing your botting repository to an online game studio).
deckard1 5y ago
To be fair, that's like the guy that wrote moment-js or jQuery. I've worked at a number of Perl-based companies and every single one used DateTime (I'm a huge fan, btw). Something like that is going to be noticeable on a resume. Assuming they have some experience with Perl. There was a company I know of that was advertising in their job postings that the guy that wrote Perl's DBI once worked for them or was their CTO or whatever. That was about 6 years ago, so not that far off.

mumblemumble 5y ago

Ha. I had actually thought about mentioning that this situation seemed to be very different 20 years ago, but decided I had already done enough blathering. But, anyway, yeah - I think that this was different 20 years ago, back when open source hadn't quite completely disrupted the software industry and companies didn't yet understand the economics of open source.

autarch 5y ago
This still helped me as recently as 2017, so it's not like this stopped being true 20 years ago.
johnnyanmac 5y ago
I mean, I worked with someone who creates a very high profile OSS project, and I'm sure it's a big reason he got hired to where he is. I'll never say OSS is an optimal career path unless you are doing something extremely specialized (which to be fair, he is). But it sure can open doors for you even today if that's something you're passionate in. For me, I got around without any OSS, so it's more like a post-career plan now to help out some beloved repos. (as long as you're not stupid, like showing your botting repository to an online game studio).

deckard1 5y ago

To be fair, that's like the guy that wrote moment-js or jQuery. I've worked at a number of Perl-based companies and every single one used DateTime (I'm a huge fan, btw). Something like that is going to be noticeable on a resume. Assuming they have some experience with Perl. There was a company I know of that was advertising in their job postings that the guy that wrote Perl's DBI once worked for them or was their CTO or whatever. That was about 6 years ago, so not that far off.