How to Launch Your Career with Open Source: Build Your First Public Project!

Open source projects are a fantastic way for developers to showcase their skills, learn best practices, and collaborate with others. Whether you’re looking to break into the tech industry, grow your portfolio, or simply give back to the developer community, contributing to or creating an open source project is one of the best ways to stand out.

In this article, I’ll share the details of how I created gitcommit, a command-line tool that uses OpenAI's API to generate meaningful Git commit messages. Along the way, I'll outline how you can start your own open source project or contribute to others to build up your portfolio.

Why Open Source?

Open source isn’t just about writing code — it’s about connecting with a global community of developers. By contributing, you’ll learn from more experienced developers who review your code, offer feedback, and help you grow. Open source also mirrors how real-world software development teams operate, so it’s a great way to prepare for your first tech job.

Showcase Your Skills

When hiring managers or recruiters ask to see examples of your work, having an active GitHub profile with contributions is a huge plus. It shows you can: