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Discussion on: How do I get experience when I have no experience?

 
nickytonline profile image
Nick Taylor

I think it's normal. I was stressed out about my first PR. I was trying to make it perfect. It didn't end up being perfect 😁. I was also very new to git at the time. You can see my first PR to Github here. Yolo.

Even though I was very comfortable with JavaScript, I was working with technology that was very new to me at the time, Meteor. I started to contribute to this project to get out of my comfort zone and force me to learn Meteor.

If you're super stressed out about it, I can give you a hand with your first PR if you want.

Also, for those interested in seeing what their first PR was, check out firstpr.me

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Suuuuuuuuuper normal Tiffany.

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tiffanywismer profile image
Tiffany Wismer

Ha! Thanks. I'm glad to hear that.

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millebi profile image
Bill Miller

If you want to contribute "code" to an opensource project; add documentation of a complex example.

One of my pet peeves of so many O/S projects is that the documentation shows trivial examples that I have already figured out and nothing more concrete/complex. If you could create a more complex example and contribute that, you're doing the community a favour to help the project AND also creating something that you can easily "show off" for an employer.

Whatever you contribute becomes a good indicator of how you think and your work product as well... so a triple bonus! And while your answer to "what did you do there" is still technically "some documentation" it can be enhanced by mentioning that it was complex interation case(s) and not just simple documentation.