Hiring Managers Advise Job Seekers To Contribute To Open-Source Projects

Fred O'Connor | PCWorld | February 11, 2014

Contributing to open-source projects can give software developers an edge over other applicants in the competitive IT job market, say hiring professionals.

“The phrase we use is ‘code is the new resume,’” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. “Open source has truly become a juggernaut as of late. Within the last five years in particular it’s just become the dominant form of development.”

Open source, he noted, is behind Google’s Android mobile OS, which is based on the Linux kernel, and open-source programs like Hadoop and NoSQL play key roles in the data-science movement. With open source in the mainstream, contributing to a community gets the attention of hiring managers.

“It is a frothy, hot market,” Zemlin said. “I suspect if you participated in these projects and got code into it you’d be highly sought after by a large number of companies. There’s just all upsides to participating in these projects, which is why you see so many people doing it.”