[mindcrime]

So this is purely subjective and I have no basis for claiming this except my own feelings and biases, but...

I would say that if you're talking about contributing to OSS solely for the purpose of enhancing your resume, and the "hope of landing an interview from a FAANG/MAANG-level corp", then you should not do it. I'd encourage people to get involved with contributing to OSS only if it serves an end such as fulfilling one's ideological commitment to FOSS, or furthering a project that one has a personal and direct connection to (eg, something you use yourself), or just because you generally want to make the world a better place and believe that contributing to OSS does that.

If you follow this approach, and treat the "resume building" aspect purely as an incidental sidebar, then the worst case is that you do something that you find worthy in and of itself and don't wind up getting that FAANG job. Best case, you both do something worthy AND you get the job.

But if you go into this with an expectation that it's about building your resume and getting a job with a FAANG, if that doesn't happen, you may be left with resentment and bitterness and a feeling that you wasted your time, and come away with a negative bias towards OSS in general. That downside seems like something worth avoiding, IMO.

[wilsonnnnnn]

Yup! Thanks a lot for this. My primary reason to OSS contribute is to be able to hone my skill and fix/implement things that could help others who use this. But you're abs spot-on on not going with the premise of expecting a job offer letter in return for writing code.

[mindcrime]

Cool. I will add this: I don't work for a FAANG, but I do work for a "Fortune 50" sized mega-corp, and I've been doing this stuff well more than 20 years now. And based on my experience, I would say that there certainly are some companies where OSS contributions would be weighted pretty strongly in terms of making you a more desirable candidate (depending on the project, the scope of your contributions, etc). But OTOH, OSS is probably not a panacea, unless you're looking to join a company whose main product itself is OSS (eg, Red Hat, Alfresco, Mongo, etc). To me, that's one more argument for "Do OSS, but only if you see doing so as its own reward." It might help you get a job, but there's no guarantee.