Contribute to open source software projects to build your portfolio and build connections to other developers.
As a software developer it is important to have a catalog of work that shows your true potential and ability to contribute to existing codebases. What better way to show off your skill than by making contributions to open source software that we use all the time (such as NPM modules).
Your job is to choose several existing issues from a project of your choosing that you can complete within the week (feel free to search resources for inspiration). And then fork the repo, set the artifact, create a README.md detailing the issues, finish the issues and submit PRs for review.
In the field you need to build relationships and make sure that your resume stands out from the pile (aka the black hole of tech resumes). One way to stand out is contributing to well known projects. This project is to test your understanding of JavaScript as well as your ability to determine your skills and pick a project within your ZPD.
When choosing a project make sure to pick something you’re actually interested in and perhaps you have used before. Make sure that the project is something you can complete in week, but also stretches you. You are responsible for setting your own artifact and making it easy for your coach to determine whether or not you completed the specs (have finished the issue you set out to complete).
- Choose 3-5 issues from one or more JavaScript packages/libraries/repos that will take you a week to complete. If you finish early choose other issues.
- Open source project repo is forked.
- Include a gist with links to submitted PRs as your artifact.
- README.md in your gist artifact contains a description of the issues, the open source project they come from, and any other necessary instructions to test your code.
- Follow any guidelines established in the CONTRIBUTING.md file of the project repo (if there is one).
- PR is submitted with a link in the README.md
- All PRs pass all continuous integration tests (if applicable).
- All PRs include a clear description summarizing the changes made and referencing the issue addressed.
- Commit messages are concise and descriptive.
- Code is well formatted without any linting errors.
- Variables, functions, CSS classes, etc. are meaningfully named.
- Functions are small and serve a single purpose.
- Code is well organized into a meaningful file structure.
- Code follows design principles of existing codebase.
If changes are requested, make changes to get the PR merged.
- Write a blog about the experience and add link to the artifact.