4 ms·

Don't do it. Working for free is unacceptable (especially in today's market for developers). Working for equity is usually a bad idea (the main thing to underst

by kjksf 11y ago

Don't do it. Working for free is unacceptable (especially in today's market for developers). Working for equity is usually a bad idea (the main thing to understand that equity only converts to cash on sale or acquisition, which are extremely rare events and even if that does happen, don't count on it happening for several years). What to do instead? Either start your own open source project (if you have ideas for something useful) or contribute to one of many existing projects (pick something with decent name recognition). If you're into low-level coding, contribute to Rust. If you're into front-end, JavaScript, contribute to atom.io (those are just random examples, the point is that for anything that you might be interested in, there is an open source project in that area that is desperate for more developers). A meaningful contribution to a well-known open-source project will be much more interesting to your future potential employer than random unpaid work for a random company. At the same time pick the project carefully. There are many projects that are not good at onboarding new developers so submit small fixes (Pull Requests in GitHub speak) to a few that interest you and pick those that are quick providing feedback (even if it's to reject a PR as long as they do it in a nice way and explain why) and drop those that are unresponsive.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
_t1mq 11y ago
I see. Well, atom.io interests me a lot, since I know a little bit of JavaScript and contributed to a relatively medium-sized game framework (melonJS). I will try just starting with small bugs and work my way up the ladder. I was asked to meet the CEO tomorrow to sign an IP assignment agreement, and I have not signed anything yet, so I assume I am ok legally speaking. By the way, the CEOs of these small start-ups were 100% honest with the pay considerations and I feel kind of bad now that I have to go and say that I will not be joining their start-up.
- aquark 11y ago
  One other thing to think about would be intangibles the startups can offer vs open source: * how good are you at self-motivating * what chance is there of being mentored at the start up? * will the CEO provide a good reference later one: a human reference likely beats pointing out the open source contributions in many jobs in the future If you are going to work for free anyway on open source then make sure you have the dedication to actually do it. Being more directly accountable to someone may be a benefit. Good luck ... it's a tough call!

by kjksf 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

_t1mq 11y ago

I see. Well, atom.io interests me a lot, since I know a little bit of JavaScript and contributed to a relatively medium-sized game framework (melonJS). I will try just starting with small bugs and work my way up the ladder. I was asked to meet the CEO tomorrow to sign an IP assignment agreement, and I have not signed anything yet, so I assume I am ok legally speaking. By the way, the CEOs of these small start-ups were 100% honest with the pay considerations and I feel kind of bad now that I have to go and say that I will not be joining their start-up.

aquark 11y ago
One other thing to think about would be intangibles the startups can offer vs open source: * how good are you at self-motivating * what chance is there of being mentored at the start up? * will the CEO provide a good reference later one: a human reference likely beats pointing out the open source contributions in many jobs in the future If you are going to work for free anyway on open source then make sure you have the dedication to actually do it. Being more directly accountable to someone may be a benefit. Good luck ... it's a tough call!