My thoughts as well. Send patches in to FLOSS projects. I sent in a patch to an experienced C programmer a few years ago and in his code review he said about

My thoughts as well. Send patches in to FLOSS projects. I sent in a patch to an experienced C programmer a few years ago and in his code review he said about my #ifdef flags - "Typically HAVE_X are about the environment and USE_X are optional features within that environment." Listening to Linux kernel developers online, they say a lot of people start kernel development with one small patch, or attempting to port some new device or chip to work with Linux. Once their patch gets merged, they sometimes continue to send in patches. The developers say that good contributors tend to not last long as independent contributors, and tend to get pulled into companies who need such programmers. And there are open jobs for people with such skills ( https://us-redhat.icims.com/jobs/84882/senior-software-engineer/job?hub=7 https://us-redhat.icims.com/jobs/84882/senior-software-engin... )