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Comment by notyourday | Hacker News Reader

Thanks, but i like getting paid. That's why they call it "career".

Yea but I also like getting paid more and adding a feature to something like React or Node would pretty much put you in the upper echelon of JS developers most companies will hire.

Also if you're switching to new frameworks and languages, doing open source will open up your career opportunities.

That's what people who want you to program their frameworks or produce some other code for free would really want you to believe.

I think it is actually true. Just ask some of the people who created and maintain some popular / high profile libraries or frameworks. That leads to a lot of job offers and more demand for your services means you can charge more.

If you have companies reaching out to you with potential job offers frequently, you can use that when negotiating salary when applying for a new job or to negotiate a raise at your current job.

It's the same principle as the guy who interviewed at Google, Facebook, Airbnb & dozen other companies and then used several offers he got to negotiate and he ended up with ridiculously good package for software engineer.

So shouldn't the article then have been "How to start your NON-open-source career by first doing open source?"

a) that's survivorship bias - for every one who "worked" on those frameworks and got somewhere because of it, there are thousands who wasted their time. I would go as far as to say that those who worked on those frameworks and got hired would have been hired without that.

> If you have companies reaching out to you with potential job offers frequently, you can use that when negotiating salary when applying for a new job or to negotiate a raise at your current job

If you are one of those people who is a target of companies rather than recruiters outreach, then you do not care about frameworks. Hint: these are people who don't have interviews. They go for lunch. Or dinner.

> It's the same principle as the guy who interviewed at Google, Facebook, Airbnb & dozen other companies and then used several offers he got to negotiate and he ended up with ridiculously good package for software engineer.

That's an imaginary guy.

You're right on track in this thread. My guess is Rob Pike was not answering data structure and algorithm questions on a white board when he got hired at Google.

I've probably made back between three and five times my hourly rate--which is considerable, though not top-of-market--on the back of being able to point to open-source projects that demonstrate mastery of problems that my clients have. Which is to say, for every hour I've spent on those projects, I've billed out three to five. (The reason that it's a range is that many of those I wouldn't have had without the social proof of my open-source work, but I can't evaluate exactly how many.)

You are a freelancer. This is a totally different market. Open source has very little to do with it, other than it is a part of your toolbox.

I have also literally been hired for jobs based on the expertise demonstrated through my open source work; my connections to a large open source project were sufficient bona fides for my first team-lead position after I left a large company. But after looking at your comment history it's pretty clear you're just looking for fights anywhere you can and so I will admit to not being terribly interested in how you will next except that.

That's what I was thinking too. How can it be my CAREER if I don't get paid for doing it? The article gives no advice on how to get paid for doing open source. So I think the title would better have been "Start your open-source hobby".

Doing open-source will help you get a better job later no doubt but it's a bit like doing a non-paid internship in the hopes of getting through the door.

Let's be realistic only people who are rich can work for free on a continuing basis. Now I'm all for working for open source if I get a grant so I can continue paying the rent. So I wish there was an article "How to get a grant to do open source".

My employer pays me per hour I contribute to open source

Are the contributions unrelated to your employer's work?

It's pretty obvious now that free software has real value to companies.

We ought to have a cultural shift toward corporations supporting their developers' work on free software.

Proprietary software is not the only valuable work a developer can do for a business. I would argue that free software is even more valuable.

Indeed. I was expecting this post to cover more about the finanicial aspects, and left disappointed. There's much to be said, yet only a few trailblazers in the field.

That's completely fine, doing open-source is not a mandatory experience for your own career. Also you can do open-source contributions at work, when it's related to work or just if your company thinks that on the long term it's good and that the benefits are great.

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