Open-Source Professionals at their very best

GNU Herds

The GNU Herds website is dedicated to the many tens of thousands of software developers, engineers, enthusiasts and programmers who have helped make GNU and open-source software possible. What's GNU? Find out here.

GNU Herds aims to encourage the professional development of the Open Source contributors, to help them advance their skills and knowledge and pride in the quality of their work.

We believe that GNU developers and software engineers have the skills, resources and mindset to make a difference at companies worldwide. Open-Source, free-software and GNU developers make up some of the most professional people in software today.

GNU and Open-source Job Seekers

There is a quandary that most of us will encounter at some stage of our career; most jobs require lots of experience, but how do you get the experience you need to get the job in the first place? Fortunately for people working in open-source there is a huge amount of opportunities available. The open source community is extremely open and welcoming, encouraging anyone to participate and contribute all manner of projects. This is one of the best ways to gain experience as you go, and if you're new, there's almost always someone with more know-how who is more than happy to help you get started. If there is any experience you lack for the jobs you want, there is no better time than now to get it and nowhere better than the open source community to do this.

When Ubuntu community manager Jono Bacon was asked for advice about how to get a career in open source, he replied "The strongest piece of advice I can provide is for you to get out there and contribute to some open source projects. Get stuck into projects, participate in public discussions (these show how good you are at working with other people), handle conflict and disagreements professionally and politely, and build up a growing list of projects that you can cite as using your contributions."

Open Source Careers

Beginning an open-source career can be a challenging but rewarding career decision, but is not one that should be taken lightly. To truly advance in a career focused on open-source technologies a person must be willing to sacrifice large...

Open Source Resumes

Open source is no longer just the domain of hobbyists. Business leaders everywhere are now realizing the value that programmers with real open source experience can bring to their development teams and are ...

Developing an Open Source Career

Once you have started a career in open source technology, it can be difficult to ascertain where your efforts should be to build upon and expand the foundations you have already established. One of the...