How open source contributions helped you land a job

Question

So I have been consuming hackernews daily. I have seen many great open source projects that were shared on hackernews and I have even used those project. but the real question is how open source contributions helped you land a job at your dream company or just in general.Furthermore,Can open source contributions help you land a consulting gig.

shakkhar · Accepted Answer

Participated in Google Summer of Code back in 2011. Worked on a project that involved adding a large-ish new feature to an existing open-source project. Helped me land a job in the US straight out of college. Otherwise, I don't think anybody would have even looked at my resume, considering that I am not from the US, don't have a CS degree and went to a no-name school outside the US.

bruce511 · Answer

Others can answer your actual question, as my personal getting-hired experience predates open source.
I have however hired many people over the years, so I will comment from that point of view.
The key word in your question is Help. just having done some open source isn't some sort of magic bullet. But it does open the door to discussing what you did, how it helped you, what you learned and so on.
In other words it supplements your "experience" factor. Especially for folk starting out it's an obvious solution to the "but how do I get experience if everyone only hires experience?" question.
Put another way, given unemployment you can either do nothing, or find a way to add value to something for free.
When it comes to hiring - for a small shop - the willingness to add real value, and the demonstrated ability to do so, goes a long way to getting hired.
But it's only one of several factors, not the only factor.