What has open source done for your career?

Alex PadulaFounder & Architect @TidesDB

All of your work is open source. Why?

It's just nice to share your work. People can read it, maybe think it's not good, but have an idea to do something else with it. That's the beauty of it. When you keep it to yourself, nobody else sees it, nobody else can learn from it. Without other open source projects, I probably wouldn't have learned that much either. It's like a chain. And the feeling of somebody using something you wrote is a nice feeling. It's nice when it solves problems, when it helps other people, when you get to work with other people. You have your own ideas, somebody else can build on them, and we can innovate even further in the same project.

Cornelia BiacsicsPrincipal Program Manager @Microsoft

Did your contributions lead to this job, or how did it happen?

My involvement in the community grew very naturally. I simply wanted to contribute to something I believed in and serve the common good. But looking back, the skills, knowledge, and experience I gained through those contributions most likely played an important role in leading me to my current position.

Damien ClochardCo-founder & Product Owner @Dalibo

What's been the impact of open source on your life?

Today it's my job and I make a living from it, which is obviously a great privilege, being able to work in a field where everything you produce is made available to others. Having both of those things, doing open source, giving away the code you write, and also getting a salary for it, is extremely satisfying. It frees up creativity. And it's brought me into contact with a lot of very interesting people and taken me to places I never would have gone if I hadn't made that bet on open source from the start.

Ege GüneşTeam Lead, Kubernetes Operators @Percona

What role has Open Source played in your career?

Open source is what started my career. I discovered software through the ideas of Open Source and Free Software, and that's ultimately what motivated me to become a developer in the first place. Without that, I probably wouldn't be where I am today. That's why working at an open source company is especially meaningful to me. The fact that the products I work on are open source gives me a strong sense of purpose and satisfaction. I'm contributing to software that people can use, study, modify, and build upon.

Matt CornillonData Cloud & AI Specialist @Google

Did talks open doors in your career?

Yes, clearly. It opens discussions with a lot of people, sometimes even future clients, even if that is not necessarily the initial goal. It also allows people who only knew you from one angle to identify you differently. And of course, there is an internal impact inside the company. At Google, for example, it shows that you do advocacy on certain topics, that you exchange with the community, and that you bring back field feedback that can help improve products or guide certain decisions.

Cedric VillemainPresident / CEO @Data bene

You've been active in open source for many years. What has been the impact on your development?

In terms of my professional career, it's led to an enormous number of things. My first job wasn't at an open source company, but I only stayed three years and after that I worked exclusively in open source. Even in those first three years, we were already on open source software. For me, open source was mainly a great way to understand what was happening and to learn IT. A good lever not just for reading documentation to figure out how to use some tool that seems magical, but for understanding how the tool actually works.

Mikaël FrancoeurSoftware Engineer @Turso

Do you think open source is still a good path today to get hired at a company?

Absolutely. What I'd add, though, is that contributing to open source specifically to get hired by that project, I think that's putting blinders on. I think the best way to use open source, whether you're learning or job searching, is to contribute in a way that puts your capabilities in the spotlight, by doing things that require a lot of knowledge and skill. Especially now with AI, it's so easy to open a pull request that fixes a non-trivial problem that in itself, paradoxically, it becomes trivial.

Bertrand DrouvotSenior Database Engineer @AWS

What impact does open source have on your work?

Today, it represents 100% of my work. I only contribute to PostgreSQL. Sometimes I also contribute to Linux when we identify bugs elsewhere in the stack, but overall my work is entirely centered around open source software.