Not to my knowledge. AFAIK, they see it as a plus. They may see an issue if they continue working on something that competes with a project that the company is working on though but that is usually solved by negotiation in the contract stage.

This is going to vary by individual I think.

Personally, I'd like to see a job candidate who contributes to open source projects, for a few reasons:

• I can see the quality of their work for myself very easily


• I can determine how well they work on teams, especially teams they probably can't physically interact with


• It tells me they care about what they do


• It tells me they probably aren't obsessive about implementing everything themselves and can use existing libraries/code bases well


• They probably know a particular niche well if they're contributing to notable projects; if that niche is relevant to the job, so much the better

But that's just me [smile]

Quote: Original post by noobermin
I'm going to push the envelope, what if you contribute to a homebrew project?
Again, these are what ifs :)

Look, noob -- nobody can foretell your future for you. Show your homebrew to 20 different guys, you will not get 1 universal reaction.
If you want to do it, just go for it, okay?
Stonewall Jackson said, "Never take counsel of your fears."
FDR said, "The only thing we have to fear is... fear itself."
Dr. Laura said, "Stop horriblizing!"

Quote: Original post by Tom Sloper
Show your homebrew game to 20 different guys, you will not get 1 universal reaction.

In other words, "it depends."
It depends on a lot of things. Is the game any good? What part did you play in its creation? Is the code elegant? Did the project have a colorful crash and burn?

Realistically here this is a big plus.
The way you need to think of a job interview is as a competition. It's you against everyone else who has an interview.

If you have contributed to an open-source project in any way this shows:
Obvious Passion
A Self-Starting attitude (aka you went out and found yourself "work")
Motivation (if indeed you stuck to the project)
Ability to work within a team
Ability to keep to deadlines (if applicable)

On top of that, depending on the exact nature of your contribution you have hard evidence of your abilities and what you can produce!

Now going back to an interview being a "competition" - this increases your chances of "winning" (getting the job). Most companies have a generic checklist of things they look for in the ideal candidate. Your ticking boxes here!

As Sneftel said - as long as you don't go in there demanding that the company becomes open-source and you make it clear that if you get the job your "other commitments" will NEVER have a negative impact on your work you'll be just fine.
As an approch for the latter comment I would suggest something along the lines of "I might trial continuing my open source for a few hours at the weekend but if I sense it will affect my performance for this company - I will drop it straight away"

Quote: Original post by noobermin
I'm going to push the envelope, what if you contribute to a homebrew project?

Again, these are what ifs :)

See previous reply. Same applies.

UFO: Alien Invasion is open source, and I receive more emails from fans of the game than from other commercial projects I worked on.