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How to become a pro-level developer by working on simple projects.

arize on January 08, 2024

It is very frustrating when you know the basics of your stacks but can't land a job or even be given a chance to join a team as an intern. After lo...
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Harlin Seritt

I would encourage anyone to start their own OSS projects so that you can stay focused on something that means something to you. AND ... join an additional one or two -- this way you get to see how others work and you can learn more things you would never have thought of if you were only working on your own. I joined one and picked up on how to manage many people on a project and how to manage dependencies (I thought I was an expert it -- I was way wrong). Thanks for the write up, arize!

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arize

Thanks for the contribution Harlin. Like you said, you will always learn something new working with people. Like you added, it's good to have your own personally projects, you might be motivated by them after some time. Seeing what you built when you knew less could actually mean a lot. Kudos!

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FJones

Please don't start OSS projects just for the sake of it. Between project rot and the huge saturation of projects, it's doomed to be unfulfilling unless you happen to have something very useful on your hands. Contribute to existing ones, find something adjacent to your ideas and integrate those there if appropriate, but don't produce even more small abandonware projects (and, yes, no matter how passionate you are and how much you cling to it for balance, the majority of these projects will end up "finished" and unmaintained, or niche and unsustainable without additional contributors).

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Noam Guy

@fjones is 100% right. Unless you bring something which is truly unique, don't waste your time on creating it from scratch. Join the one open source project that is closest to your vision and help them to "get there".

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Çetin Kaan Taşkıngenç

I kind of look unemployment as a job as well. Side projects teach you a lot. Even more than jobs do sometimes. In my opinion, while unemployed if you look at unemployment as a "job" and build stuff, learn new skills you'll thrive in no time.

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Sarah Schlueter

Thank you for posting this! I have been wanting to make my first contribution to open source for a long time but haven't been able to find a project that was simple enough to get my feet wet. Thanks to you, I've made my first contribution. 😊

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Season Shrestha

Can we do this in react/next ?

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Humjerry⚓

This is a great way to start. Hopefully Will do this someday.

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Platoalt

Great post