This talk describes how to get involved in open-source as a way to break the Catch-22 of "to get a job you need experience. to get experience you need a job." Presented at the WOU Computer Science club in January 2015.

1. January 2015
How to Get a Software Job w/o
Experience
Charles Anderson
master.sparkle@gmail.com

2. Catch-22
To get a job, you need
experience
To get experience, you
need a job
“That's some catch, that Catch-
22."
yandoo.wordpress.com/2014/04/22/catch-22/

3. Solution
✤ Join an open-source
software project
✤ Helps even if you want to
work at a closed-source
company or if you’re not a
programmer
Source: New Yorker Magazine

4. Some Examples
Brian Rosner - “new forms admin” project lead for
Django
Eric Holscher - screencasts and blog entries about
testing Django apps, WriteTheDocs.org
Hongli Lai & Ninh Bui - Phusion Passenger

5. Mad Skilz 4 The Man
Real world tools for real world problems
Know how to work on a (distributed) team
Tools: VCS, build, testing, mailing lists, IRC
Code and documentation have been reviewed
Have real examples to point to
Can take criticism - peer reviews

6. How to Find a Project
A tool you’re already using - any language or
platform, even M$
A tool you wish you had
Newsletters - e.g., Explore GitHub, The Change Log
Podcasts - e.g., FLOSS Weekly, SE Radio

7. How to Participate
Participate in mailing list discussions
Use the code and report bugs
Write documentation
Find a bug or feature and implement it
Start your own (sub)project or a plug-in

8. Money for Nothing and…
✤ Google Summer of Code:
Google pays students to
work on open-source
projects

9. But, I’m an IS Major
Don’t matter - the song
remains the same
Lots of cool
infrastructure projects -
e.g., Docker, Vagrant,
Nagios, Puppet,…

10. Conclusion
Working on an open-source project provides “real world”
experience
Demonstrates motivation, self-startitude
Do it this summer - or even this week
Better than video games or Gilmore Girls
Put it on your resume, but you might not ever need a
resume

11. More Info
CS 477 - Open Source
Software Development
OSCON and OS Bridge
Producing Open Source
Software - ProducingOss.com
www.slideshare.net/ws.cander
/