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#jobs-discuss
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2022-02-18
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john2x02:02:58

Would you consider Emacs Lisp repos/contributions useful for beginners who are looking at applying for jobs?

eggsyntax02:02:42

Not as useful as Clojure contributions, of course, but still useful IMO!

eggsyntax03:02:15

(to be clear, I assume you mean linking to existing contributions — if you’re considering making a new contribution in order to make yourself more attractive to employers who are hiring Clojure programmers, you’d likely be better off contributing to a Clojure project)

practicalli-johnny15:02:43

Contributing to open source projects can be a relatively low barrier (compared to getting a job) in order to demonstrate common software skills - analyse a problem, discuss the issues, propose and create an appropriate solution. Contributing also shows that a git workflow can be used. I also suggest that investing time in one open source project may be better that pull requests spread over unrelated projects. In that way a discussion can be had in more depth about how issues and solutions were arrived at, as well as challenges and constraints with that particular project.

jrotenberg20:02:47

agree with both @U077BEWNQ and @U05254DQM. my two cents is that its entirely possible that contributions will help, and its also entirely possible that prospective employers will never look at them (even if you link them, talk about them, etc). definitely not a reason not to do them, but keep that in mind.

practicalli-johnny21:02:50

If enough time has been spent on an open source project and it is useful to share with a prospective employer, then it should be documented on the CV as any other job. Not just a link. Possibly before any other work experience if it's relevant or if other relevant work experience is limited.

practicalli-johnny21:02:05

My experience is the majority of interviewers are vastly unprepared to interview candidates. So key experience needy to leap off the page so it can't be ignore. At my last interview, the person said they hadn't even read my CV (a real red flag and motivation killer). It's specifically kept to 2 pages, with a header showing links to my projects. This gets ignored unless someone already knows my work.