As someone who works with open source and has helped hiring some people: - The lack of degree still makes a difference. You're on your 20's you still have time

As someone who works with open source and has helped hiring some people: - The lack of degree still makes a difference. You're on your 20's you still have time for that. Having a degree at a bad uni is still better than not having it. I've seen managers who reject brilliant people simply for not having degrees. - Contributing to other's projects is, IMHO, more valuable than having your own, unless your own project gets big and used by big players. Having bug fixes or features in big famous projects is a massive trampoline for a lot of people, if they want to get a job in a related industry (e.g., having Kernel patches if you want to apply for driver developer positions, having gcc patches if you want to work in compilers, etc.). - Nothing is a guarantee of anything. In some areas there's a shortage of workers with experience and so anybody that starts contributing decently gets a chance. Some other areas are full of brilliant people so you'll be just one more person. Also your behavior affects your chances: make sure to build a reputation as a nice contributor.