Contributing to Open Source: Why It Matters and How to Start
Source: Dev.to
Why Contribute to Open Source?
Everyone—from freelance engineers to big‑tech companies and governments—uses Open Source Software (OSS). Most of us are consumers of open source, but contributing means giving something back. Projects such as nginx‑ingress and external‑secrets have been deprecated due to maintainer burnout, lack of community support, or overwhelming workloads. While some OSS projects are backed by large companies with paid engineers, about half of open‑source projects are still maintained by individuals in their spare time.
Contributing to OSS can be seen as a form of digital volunteering. Some companies (e.g., Criteo, Futurice) even offer paid volunteer time (VPTO) specifically for open‑source contributions.
Personal Growth
- Technical learning – Working inside a real, production‑grade codebase exposes you to project structure, architectural decisions, backward‑compatibility concerns, and trade‑offs. You’ll often encounter unfamiliar tools, languages, or ecosystems, expanding your technical range.
- Communication skills – Issues and pull requests force you to articulate problems clearly, propose solutions, and explain your reasoning. Feedback from maintainers and contributors sharpens your ability to communicate precisely and concisely, a crucial skill in modern engineering organizations.
Networking & Visibility
- Professional relationships – Interacting with maintainers and contributors from different companies, countries, and seniority levels builds familiarity and trust. Over time, these interactions can lead to collaborations, additional responsibilities, or job referrals.
- Public portfolio – Unlike work hidden behind NDAs, open‑source contributions are public by default. Your commits, pull requests, discussions, and design decisions form a living portfolio that recruiters can verify, often outweighing a traditional résumé.
How to Get Started
You don’t need a revolutionary idea or special credentials. If you already write code, you can contribute.
Identify a Problem
- While using an open‑source tool, notice a bug or a missing feature.
- Investigate the issue—use your skills and, if needed, an LLM to help.
- If you fix it, open a pull request to the upstream repository.
- If you can’t fix it, create an issue and share your findings. Both actions count as contributions and provide learning opportunities.
Find “Good First Issues”
- Make a list of projects you like, use, or want to learn more about.
- Browse their open issues and look for labels such as good first issue, beginner, or help wanted.
- Choose an issue that matches your current skill level and start working on it.
Curated Lists of Beginner‑Friendly Projects
Open source thrives when more people contribute. It isn’t hard or unreachable—anyone can do it. Start small, pick a project you love, and take your first step.