Make it open source

This is a guest post from Eddie Jaoude. Enjoy.

Dear New Developer,

I will be the first one to tell you that it is not essential to have a degree in computer science to become a developer. My own journey started with a degree in engineering and falling into code as a mix of a hobby and also by necessity in my first graduate job. I have seen so many others in the tech community follow different paths to becoming developers; such as primary school teachers and historians.

Whether you have always wanted to become a developer or whether this is a new start for you, the likelihood is that you will be looking for learning resources from blog posts, YouTube videos and online courses. There are so many resources available, many of which are free, which means that you can improve your abilities without having to leave your house – which in a Covid era is quite handy.

However I would say to you – do not fall into the trap of getting stuck in “tutorial hell”. Thirst for knowledge is a great thing – and a good developer will realise that at no point in their career will they know everything and you do need to keep learning.

This is a little like going to the gym: you’ve decided you want a six pack – your trainer has shown you where the three different ab machines are and how to use them, you have watched endless videos on the best time to train, how long for and what food you should be eating. But it won’t be until you do that first ab crunch – which lets face it, won’t be perfect, that you will embark on your journey to achieving that six pack.

So my advice to you is – pause the video tutorial and build something. Apply what you have been learning and let go of the idea that it will be perfect. What is perfect today can be improved by your experiences tomorrow, the day after, in a year’s time and so on.

My second piece of advice – which is perhaps the one I am most passionate about as it forms the whole ethos of how I work: make it open source. I don’t want to assume that you know what open source is. It took me a few years into my career to find out about it. I was using open source tools in my day job and thinking how great it was that there were so many valuable free available tools out there that anyone could use. I was also beginning to network more and everyone kept talking about open source, which got me interested in finding out more about this community which works publicly and transparently to resolve software problems. I didn’t want to just take, I wanted to give back.

As a new developer you might be worried that you are not yet at a stage where you can give back and contribute. There is a misconception that you only have something to teach when you have reached a level of seniority in your career. But everyone has a voice. Don’t think that just because you are at the start of your career that all you should be doing is asking questions and seeking help. You do not want to be a drain on the community; at first you will get the help you need, but soon community members will see you are just there to get a quick fix to your problem and then drop off the face of the earth until you hit another stumbling block.

Beginning to get involved is not always easy – it might feel like you are entering an old fashioned boardroom meeting full of senior colleagues and you are under immense pressure to say something…anything at all… which really just contributes to you feeling anxious and insecure about your abilities and in a worse case, can stop you from taking that step.

So start small. Github in my view is a fantastic (and essential) way to start your journey into open source. Firstly, find a good repository:

• Go to the Issues section which lists your issues, clear the search box;
• Add the search parameter for the label “good first issue” and consider including a language;
• This will list all issues which will match this criteria and from there have a look at the repositories and see which ones seem interesting to you.
• Check the closed Pull Requests that have not been merged: it is completely acceptable for a project maintainer not to accept pull requests – but were these rejected in a friendly and constructive manner?
• When making a contribution, focus on adding value (don’t just suggest a change for the sake of it) and being respectful towards the project maintainer’s time;
• Bonus tip: check the insights tab on the repository to see if the project is inclusive for things like code of conduct.

You might ask – “But why should I make my projects open source?” Why would you not?

Is it because you hope your project will become your revenue stream and you do not want to share this with others? Making their project open source certainly did not hinder Red Hat when it was sold for £34 billion.

Is it because you lack the confidence and do not want to feel exposed? How else will you learn if you do not put yourself out there?

By making your project open source you widen the number of people you can learn from massively, as well as making connections which might even help further your career. When recruiting for my team I no longer spend hours quizzing a candidate about the bullet points in their CV. I go to their Github account where I can see exactly what they can do and how they interact with others.

Making your project open source is probably one of the best calling cards you can have as it showcases what you are about, not only from a technical perspective but also how you will engage with others. Whether you are looking for your first role as a developer, have secured one with a small start up or have embarked on a graduate training programme with one of the large tech companies, you need to know that no project is limited to one person only. You will need to collaborate with UI/UX, testers, product owners …the list goes on.

You may come across really well in a face to face (or virtual!) interview – exuding confidence and a team spirit. You also might not. By having an open source project your prospective employer and colleagues will be able to see how well you do with receiving and giving feedback and how you act upon this. This is a skill which needs to be learnt and open source projects are the forum to do it.

You might have a job where you work your own, or perhaps you work in a team with quite similar views and levels of seniority – these things might not be conducive to receiving and giving feedback.

By making your project open source you are interacting with people from all over the World, with different levels of seniority and most importantly different perspectives. That, New Developer, can only be a positive for your technical and personal development.

— Eddie

Eddie Jaoude is an open source advocate and believes open source is for everyone. Check out his GitHub and YouTube.