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I agree and I've been trying to clean up some hacks just a bit (things like removing API keys that should have been in a config file from the start…) and put th

I agree and I've been trying to clean up some hacks just a bit (things like removing API keys that should have been in a config file from the start…) and put them on GitHub. Not because they're great and the world needs to know, but mostly because someone, somewhere, might come across it and get something out of it. Though this difference between "open-source project" and "putting code out there" is where I'm not sure what companies/recruiters think about when they say "open source contributions is a plus". Most likely they'd love to see someone who is a core committer to an important project, but I would think that the truth is that not many developers have contributed significantly to a medium to major open-source project. I contributed mainly to one project some time ago, but nowadays, I prefer to work on my own things even if they are much much smaller.

autarch 14y ago
As someone who's done a fair bit of hiring, I'm happy to see anything out there at all. At least it gives me some real code to look at. Of course, having contributed to (or better yet, created) a widely-used project is an even bigger plus. But something is usually better than nothing, unless that something is code so awful that it makes me not want to hire you ;)
- taylonr 14y ago
  How often have you been able to hire a core contributor or creator? I ask out of curiosity because it seems most of the OSS guys I follow are independent consultants, and don't fit the profile of being an employee somewhere.
technomancy 14y ago
While having started a widely-used project looks impressive, I'd much rather see a steady stream of improvements to existing projects from a potential hire than a bunch of their own projects that no one else uses. While the latter may tell me a bit more about how someone's design sense, the former tells me more about how well they work with other humans, which is much more interesting.

autarch 14y ago

As someone who's done a fair bit of hiring, I'm happy to see anything out there at all. At least it gives me some real code to look at. Of course, having contributed to (or better yet, created) a widely-used project is an even bigger plus. But something is usually better than nothing, unless that something is code so awful that it makes me not want to hire you ;)

taylonr 14y ago
How often have you been able to hire a core contributor or creator? I ask out of curiosity because it seems most of the OSS guys I follow are independent consultants, and don't fit the profile of being an employee somewhere.

technomancy 14y ago

While having started a widely-used project looks impressive, I'd much rather see a steady stream of improvements to existing projects from a potential hire than a bunch of their own projects that no one else uses. While the latter may tell me a bit more about how someone's design sense, the former tells me more about how well they work with other humans, which is much more interesting.