12 ms·

Yes. The best developers I know do not contribute to open source projects, and have no interest in doing so. I can understand why. It take a HUGE amount of eff

• gcheong 18y ago
  I have often wondered about this. From an employer's perspective what would be more impressive, minor work done on a large open source project or major work done building one's own app from start to finish? By "minor" I'm assuming here that starting in any large well known open source project means you have to work your way up to get into the small core set of developers that really have a say in the project and as such most of your contribution will be minor at least initially.
  • psranga 18y ago
    Usually companies try to evaluate a candidate independently; unless your side project is exactly what the company wants, I'd be surprised if your open source projects are the deciding factor in your getting the job. But your o-s contribs can get you an _interview_ and indirectly help you in the interview. Hopefully all practice you've been getting through your side projects would have made you a better developer and that will be apparent in the interviews. From this point of view, I would say major work building one's own app makes one a better developer than minor work on a major project. Your skills development is what matters in the end, not the "name recognition" of having contributed to such-and-such project.