I do get that, and I'll be more sympathetic to hiring managers who want to see open-source code than I have been in other comments.
( Active job hunting tends to make one grumpy. Take home programming assignments are a current sore spot for me. )
It's a recent job posting that said "Requirement: OSS contributions" that seemed over the top. Maybe it's no less troubling than "Requirement: SQL expertise" - after all, we're all 'discriminated' against to some degree by not having experience in everything a future employer might want.
With the SQL requirement, however, there's an obvious drag on a project if they bring in a new hire who has no SQL knowledge. If a team working on OSS hires someone with no OSS experience - is that going to mean they can't contribute right away?
I suppose the argument could be that someone with experience making OSS contributions has experience in how open source projects operate, how contributions are made, just basically how things work.
But, TBH, projects vary so much anyway that I'm not sure how much that experience adds that couldn't be picked up fairly quickly with some mentoring.
( Active job hunting tends to make one grumpy. Take home programming assignments are a current sore spot for me. )
It's a recent job posting that said "Requirement: OSS contributions" that seemed over the top. Maybe it's no less troubling than "Requirement: SQL expertise" - after all, we're all 'discriminated' against to some degree by not having experience in everything a future employer might want.
With the SQL requirement, however, there's an obvious drag on a project if they bring in a new hire who has no SQL knowledge. If a team working on OSS hires someone with no OSS experience - is that going to mean they can't contribute right away?