Contributing to open source does it or will it help you or your company/career?

[tinonetic]

I've been wondering on the pros and cons of contributing to opensource projects...like maybe Joomla,Drupal,phbb,osCommerce...etc... and other non-web-related projects. Whether through your own "third-party" modules/plugins/components or contributing to the core source code.

Does this help one's career or company in any way? Would it be better to credit yourself or credit the company, if you do contribute.

[bluedreamer]

Any contributions your make would essentially be free advertising for your company, especially if you write 3rd party addons. You could also release addons as commercial products as well which might provide your with an income stream.

[vgarcia]

Let's take drupal as an example. If a company is heavily invested in that CMS and puts out a job listing, somebody who has worked on Drupal's internals is going to be far more desirable than someone who has just customized some templates and administered the system. Now if you've spent years contributing to Drupal but are applying for a job that uses Sharepoint, your experience and contributions are far less useful and I'd be surprised if you even got an interview.

[AlexDawson]

It also gives other businesses or potential employers the chance to see the quality of your coding (by looking at the source you contributed).

[Kailash Badu]

I guess involving yourself in an open source project would always stand you in good stead. Apart from improving your programming and project management skills It’s also a remarkable technique to reach out to a number of potential employers. Moreover, if some of the postings in popular job sites are any indication, increasing number of companies are explicitly asking for a history of contribution to an open source project as an important criterion for recruiting employees.

[tinonetic]

thanks for the input, guys. was thinking about getting involved in some way or the other and I guess its worth it

[sandiphegde]

It always gives back in one or other form ! Directly or Indirectly !