Let me second that. When I am hiring a student without professional experience, it is almost a perfect predictor that if they have done significant work on a significant outside project they will get an interview with me and if not, they won't.
Moreover, if I have a candidate at any level who has made significant contributions to a major open source project, I generally don't even drill much more on code hygiene issues. The standards in most open source projects regarding testing and continuous integration are high enough that I don't have to worry about whether the applicant understands how to code and how to code with others. On the other hand, the only use I make of the list of buzzwords generally found under "skills" on a resume is that I start at the end of the list and ask a question about that area's fundamentals to see if the student is padding their list. When interviewing with me don't ever put anything on your resume that you don't really know. I don't know how widespread my attitude is, but I can't believe I am alone in this. On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 3:42 AM, Grant Ingersoll <gsing...@apache.org> wrote: > Remember, open source is an excellent resume builder. > -- Ted Dunning, CTO DeepDyve