How Open Source Can Shape Your Career and Growth as an Engineer

Posted on Feb 25, 2025

How Open Source Can Shape Your Career and Growth as an Engineer

If you are beginning your engineering journey right about now, using AI tools that work as your second brain sounds great, and will get you through your hobby projects, maybe interviews, first few months at your job. But I would like to talk about something that will help you go through the long career you have in front of you. Technologies will come and go, but you have to move ahead regardless the technologies and tools you have in your hand. Because after a few years you will learn that writing code is effectively a tiny part of being an engineer.

If you’re an engineer early in your career, getting involved in open source is one of the best things you can do — not just for your technical skills, but for the way you work and collaborate with others. Open source isn’t just about writing code; it teaches you how to work in teams, think openly, and build strong, long-lasting professional relationships. The lessons you learn from open source communities will stay with you throughout your career, helping you become a better engineer, a better teammate, and a more confident problem solver.

Here’s why contributing to open source can set you up for success:

You Learn to Work with Others

Writing code is just one part of being a successful engineer. Being able to work effectively with others is just as important. In open source projects, people from all over the world contribute to the same codebase, meaning that collaboration is essential.

You’ll learn how to:

Communicate clearly through written discussions in issues and pull requests.
Give and receive constructive feedback on code reviews.
Work on shared codebases without stepping on each other’s work.
Follow best practices in documentation so others can understand and build on your work.

These are the same skills that will help you thrive in any engineering team, whether you’re working remotely or in an office. By collaborating with experienced contributors, you get firsthand experience in how real-world engineering teams operate.

You Build Transparency and Open Decision-Making Skills

In many workplaces, decisions about architecture, design, and implementation happen behind closed doors. In open source, everything happens in public. This means you can see how experienced engineers think through complex problems, debate trade-offs, and arrive at solutions that work for everyone.

By participating in these discussions, you’ll:

Learn how to justify technical decisions with clear reasoning.
Understand how different perspectives contribute to better solutions.
Gain experience in proposing changes, gathering feedback, and iterating on your ideas.

Transparency in decision-making is a crucial skill, especially as you grow in your career. When you eventually take on leadership roles, you’ll already be comfortable with explaining your choices and guiding teams toward the best solutions.

You Understand Meritocracy—And Why It Needs Inclusivity

Open source projects are often described as meritocracies, where the best ideas win, regardless of who suggests them. In theory, this is great—it means your work will be judged by its quality rather than your job title or years of experience. However, the reality is that meritocracy only works if everyone has equal access to participate.

Not everyone starts with the same level of opportunity. Some people might have less free time, fewer resources, or less confidence in sharing their ideas. Great open source communities recognize this and actively work to be more inclusive by:

Offering clear, beginner-friendly contribution guidelines.
Encouraging mentorship and pairing newcomers with experienced contributors.
Creating welcoming spaces where questions are encouraged, not dismissed.

When you contribute to open source, you see firsthand how inclusive environments lead to stronger teams. You’ll carry this lesson with you into your career, making sure that everyone—regardless of background—has a fair chance to contribute and succeed.

You Become a Better Engineer

One of the biggest challenges of working in open source is knowing that your code is out in the open for everyone to see. Unlike personal projects or closed-source work, where only your immediate team reviews your code, open source code is reviewed by people from different backgrounds, with different perspectives, and with varying levels of experience.

This means you’ll have to:

Write code that is easy to read and understand.
Follow consistent coding standards and best practices.
Justify your design choices in ways that others can comprehend.
Improve your debugging and problem-solving skills through real-world issues.

The feedback you get from experienced maintainers will push you to improve your coding style, optimize your logic, and write more efficient code. Over time, this discipline will carry over into your professional work, making you a better engineer in every aspect.

You Learn to Work with Diverse Teams

Open source communities bring together people from all over the world. Unlike a typical workplace where you mostly interact with people from the same company or culture, open source exposes you to a wide range of working styles, communication patterns, and problem-solving approaches.

By working in such a diverse environment, you’ll:

Learn how to navigate cultural and language differences in technical discussions.
Adapt to different styles of collaboration, whether async or real-time.
Build the flexibility to work with different personalities and levels of experience.

This ability to work with diverse teams is a skill that will serve you well throughout your career. Companies are increasingly working across time zones and cultures, and being able to thrive in such environments will make you stand out as an engineer.

You Gain Respect by Giving Back

One of the most rewarding parts of contributing to open source is seeing the impact of your work. You might fix a small bug that helps thousands of users, write documentation that makes it easier for others to learn, or build a feature that becomes a key part of a widely used project. In return, you gain the respect of the community.

Respect in open source isn’t given based on titles or job positions—it’s earned through contributions. The more you give, the more you learn, and the more you grow. You also build a network of peers, mentors, and future colleagues who recognize your work and may even open doors to new opportunities.

Getting Started

If you’re new to open source, getting started can feel overwhelming. The key is to start small:

Find a project that interests you. It doesn’t have to be a big, well-known one—any project that aligns with your skills and interests is a great place to begin.
Look for beginner-friendly issues labeled “good first issue” or “help wanted.”
Read the project’s contribution guidelines and start by improving documentation or fixing small bugs.
Join community discussions, ask questions, and observe how maintainers interact.

The skills and connections you build in open source will stay with you throughout your career. Whether you’re looking to improve as an engineer, build meaningful relationships, or contribute to something bigger than yourself, open source is a great place to start.