I've been going through the Odin Project and I'm finishing up the full stack JavaScript course. To gain more practical experience, I'm trying to build projects and have contributed to a few open source repositories. However, I want to know how I can mimic the workflow and skills found in a professional environment, especially for more complex codebases. Since I don't have anyone to collaborate with right now, I'm looking for ways to simulate the teamwork process that you'd typically see in the industry. Any tips would be appreciated!
5 Answers
Congrats on your open-source journey! Focus on taking on more complex repositories and issues from here on out. This experience will look great on your resume and help when you interview for junior roles. You could also consider short-term freelance gigs, just to get your foot in the door and work alongside more experienced developers. Good luck!
Seek out open source projects where you can interact with unfamiliar codebases. You'll get to practice maintaining code, fixing issues, submitting PRs, and using version control—all of which are critical in a professional software engineering environment. Good luck!
I joined a startup that couldn’t pay me at first. Honestly, it’s been a treasure trove of learning experiences. Even though it's unpaid, I’m honing my skills and when they finally launch, I believe it'll pay off big time. Check out Reddit posts; there are often people looking for developers!
That sounds really interesting! How did you manage to get that opportunity?
Contributing to open source is probably your best bet to get experience that feels similar to working in a job. It can be challenging to find the right issues to tackle, but I’d recommend reaching out in the project's discussions if you have questions. It's a great way to learn and also engage with others.
I’ve tackled some minor contributions, but sometimes I feel lost about which problems I should focus on. I’d really love to be part of a more structured setting where I could receive guidance!
Keep in mind that not all companies have pristine codebases. Some can be quite messy, and you might find that they rely on manual testing instead of automated. Getting experience with these imperfections is also valuable—it shows why maintaining good standards is so important as complexity increases. Different companies will operate very differently!
I’ve heard those stories before, so that doesn’t surprise me! It’s definitely good to know I might encounter messy situations; it’ll help me understand the importance of clean standards.
Thanks for the encouragement! I’ll definitely keep digging into larger projects!