I have started using dapr by Microsoft which has a very active small community and increasing adoption. Becoming proficient in using a tool like this and also b

I have started using dapr by Microsoft which has a very active small community and increasing adoption. Becoming proficient in using a tool like this and also becoming a contributor is an example of being in demand for the companies that might be using it if it doesn't mean working specifically for MSFT or one of the other corporate sponsors. Another strategy for getting intro to users of OSS software is to join discord and start offering help and then possibly leveraging that to mention the help could be more permanent. Do be careful though not to be explicitly soliciting since that is usually against the community policies so a little bit of a needle to thread.