I’m working on a talk about the relationship between community participation and careers, and want to hear from people who feel like open source has impacted their career. Tell me your story!
Below are some questions related to get you started. Feel free to either fork this gist, blog your answers and send me the link, or email them directly to me at bkeepers@github.com. I will ask your permission before sharing anything about your story publicly.
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How do you feel your participation in open source has impacted your career, both good and bad?
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How did you first get exposed to open source? Why did you decide to learn more about it?
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Do you code? If so, were you a coder when you got started with open source? Why did you learn to code?
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How have you participated in open source communities beyond code? How?
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How did you make the leap from casual bystander to participant? What was your biggest barrier to entry and how did you overcome it? Did you have any mentors or other support along the way?
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How satisfied are you with your career right now?
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What advice do you wish you could give your younger self?
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(optional) What gender and ethnicity/race do you identify as?
There are some good starting points in the conversations we had with Sean Marcia and Richard Davey. Hope this helps :)
https://github.com/blog/2133-meet-sean-marcia-founder-of-ruby-for-good
https://github.com/blog/2148-meet-richard-davey-creator-of-phaser