I’m lucky that I can say yes. That said, I still wouldnt do it for free. What about you, how do you feel about your job/career/field in general?
I’m lucky that I can say yes. That said, I still wouldnt do it for free. What about you, how do you feel about your job/career/field in general?
How did you get into this? I’ve been thinking about finding a different job but haven’t put real effort into it (yet). I’m currently a “senior” developer according to my boss, and I’m bored and annoyed by the commercial culture. Something open source sounds great if I also get paid but I highly doubt that that “senior” standard translates well.
I got into it by just committing to some projects in my free time. I built a relationship with the project, traveled to a few international sprints, and then eventually started working part time and gradually increased my involvement. I’m not sure how widely reproducible it is, to be honest, but it all starts with just getting into open source development and, like basically anything else, making personal connections in that scene. It’s highly dependent on the funding of the project, and unfortunately fundraising is the hard part of open source software development…
Plus, if you’re a senior developer, especially in the US, then you’ll probably be looking at decrease in pay to something around Euro developer rates. It’s hard to know if the long term prospects of this career are good, but I’m happy enough for now and I have a lot of agency. And it does feel good to know that you’re writing FOSS code for everyone to use. I would treat it like a passion-driven vocation of sorts.