Recently, Heather Rocker and Tim Lehnen of the Drupal Association, with other open source experts, shared with Builtin tips on the best way to contribute to—and start building relationships in—open source.
 
Involvement with open source can be a rewarding way to learn, teach, and build experience in just about any career/skill you can imagine.

“We want you here. All the leaders within the community want that,” says Tim Lehnen. “There are a lot of people, especially in Drupal, who built their whole careers out of showing up on IRC 14 years ago and saying, ‘Hey, is there something I can help out with?’”

There are plenty of ways to get started with open source. But there are also many questions to answer to find your place: What does it mean to contribute? Breaking into new communities as a new contributor can be hard, and project leaders know that. How do you find the right project? How do you orient yourself to a new project? What if you don’t know how to code? What if something goes wrong?

Professional growth and building relationships in open-source spaces is, in some ways, easier than in traditional work environments. Lots of open-source projects are also taking steps to make their communities more inclusive and diverse. Building a community that encourages people to use, contribute to, and evangelize your project is very important.

Open source is made by people like you: one issue, pull request, comment, or high-five at a time. Read the full article to get inspired in getting involved with open source.