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Sat, Nov 8, 10:30 - 10:55, Kachina A     Paper (refereed)
Recommended Citation: Long, J.  Putting Experiences in Open Source Software Development on Students’ Resumes: Does it Count? -Insights from the Employers’ Perspective.  In The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2008, v 25 (Phoenix): §3342. ISSN: 1542-7382.
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Putting Experiences in Open Source Software Development on Students’ Resumes: Does it Count? -Insights from the Employers’ Perspective

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Refereed14 pages
Ju Long    [a1] [a2]
Department of CIS&QM
Texas State University San Marcos    [u1] [u2]
San Marcos, Texas, USA    [c1] [c2]

Open Source Software (OSS) is a major force in today's Information Technology (IT) landscape. Companies are increasingly using OSS in mission-critical applications. The transparency of the OSS technology itself with openly available source code make it ideal for IS students to participate in the OSS developments. However, how do the potential employers value the students’ OSS development experiences? What are the factors that the potential employers consider when evaluating the students/developers’ OSS experiences? Our research examined those questions in detail using empirical data gathered from various CIO/CTOs, product managers and developers who have involved in companies’ hiring process and who are familiar with OSS. We found that OSS related experiences can have very positive effect on students’ career development. OSS related experiences are viewed as valid indicators of developers’ capabilities. We also found that how closely OSS projects relate the hiring companies’ projects is crucial when evaluating the OSS experiences. In addition, performances in OS programming and architecting are regarded as more valuable indicator of the developer’s skills. Our research could be of value to IS students when they consider adding OSS experiences to the students’ resume. It could also shed some insights to IS educators when they advise students on their career development.

Keywords: Open Source Software, Career Development, Computer Information Systems, Software Development Process, Evaluation and Promotion

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