Do you love open source and want to make enough money to pay the bills? Dawn made an accidental career out of open source over 15 years ago, and it changed her life. It has given her an opportunity to work with amazing people and travel the world while doing work that is more fun than any job should be. This session will start with why you might want to make a career out of open source. The bulk of it will explore the many ways to get open source to pay your bills. Even if you already have one of these jobs, this talk will provide options for additional career paths and tips for what to do improve your chances of getting that next gig and how to avoid sabotaging your career. Dawn will share her stories about how she ended up here along with some of her time management tips to avoid letting this work take over your entire life (unless you want it to)!

1. OPEN SOURCE:
A JOB & AN ADVENTURE
Presenta(on
available
at
h0p://fastwonderblog.com/speaking/
Dawn M. Foster
PhD
Student,
University
of
Greenwich
Consultant,
The
Scale
Factory
@geekygirldawn
dawn@fastwonder.com

2. WHOAMI
• Geek, traveler, reader
• 20 year tech career. Past 15 years
doing community & open source
(Intel, Puppet Labs, etc.)
• PhD student at University of
Greenwich researching Linux
kernel
• Community and open source
consultant at The Scale Factory
Photos by Josh Bancroft, Don Park

3. AGENDA
Why have a career in open source
How to make this happen
Time management to avoid burnout
Photo byThe Linux Foundation

4. WHY: FRIENDS
Meet amazing friends
from around the world
Photo byThomas Perl

5. WHY: TRAVEL
Attend conferences
and work with other
companies
Photo byTim Samhoff

6. WHY: FUTURE CAREER
Visible work and
connections to people
Photo byThe Linux Foundation

7. WHY: AWESOME
Free as in freedom,
innovative,
interesting & cooperative
Photo byThe Linux Foundation

8. HOW: NEW PROJECT
Start a new project
that you need

9. HOW: PARTICIPATE
Participate, learn new
skills, and become
known within the project

10. HOW: NOT JUST DEVS
OSS projects need people
with a variety of skills

11. HOW: JOIN A COMPANY
Join a company that does
open source and
transition into other jobs

12. HOW: BRING OSS IN
Bring OSS into
your current job

13. HOW: GET OUT THERE
Write and speak about
your work in open source

14. HOW: CONSULTING
Companies need help
with implementation
& open source contribution

15. HOW: DOCUMENTATION
Helping with docs is one
of the most common
ways to get started

16. HOW: BE NICE
Be nice & work well with
others to improve your
chances of getting work
Photo by Scott Kveton

17. HOW: NETWORK
Meet people and
keep in touch
Photo byThe Linux Foundation

18. TIME: PRIORITIZE
Everything seems urgent,
but most things will wait
Photo by Mathew Rogers

19. TIME: DOCUMENT
Document processes and
write answers to
common questions
Photo by Hans Gerwitz

20. TIME: OFF
Take time off for hobbies
or even a vacation

21. BOLDLY GO
Travel to strange new
worlds and meet
interesting people

22. THANK YOU
Contact info: Dawn Foster
@geekygirldawn
dawn@fastwonder.com
fastwonderblog.com
I'm available for community / open source consulting
The Scale Factory is Hiring!
DevOps stuff
www.scalefactory.com/team/careers