YOUR FIRST OPEN SOURCE CONTRIBUTION
[Highly Recommended for Job Seekers and Juniors] Make Your First Open-Source Contribution with AI in Just 2 Weeks
An experience you’ll want to put on your résumé,
this time, create it yourself.
It’s okay if you’re new to GitHub.
Solve a small problem with AI,
and submit your first open-source PR over two weeks.
“Open source—I should try it someday.” Let’s make that someday these two weeks.
WHY THIS CHALLENGE
Developer employment in the AI era,
why does open-source contribution experience matter?
In the era of building personal projects with AI, the difference in employability comes from real-world collaboration experience. Open-source contributions are a powerful career advantage, demonstrating both practical collaboration experience and essential Git skills.
Reason 01 Real-world collaborative experience
From “I’ve built something”
to “I’ve developed something together.”
Completing a simple personal project with AI has become easier. Now, the fact that you have “built a service on your own” is no longer enough to set you apart. What gives you an edge in hiring is experience understanding other people’s code and solving problems together.
In open source, you read existing code, propose changes that follow the project’s conventions, exchange reviews, and improve the code. This collaborative experience, which closely resembles real-world work, shows that you are a developer ready to work with others and becomes a powerful reason for employers to choose you.
Reason 02 Git skills demonstrated through your records
“I know how to use Git.”
Now show your work history as well.
Git is a fundamental practical skill that even entry-level developers must learn. Creating branches, committing changes, and proposing them through PRs is the starting point of team development.
The branches, commits, and PRs you leave while contributing to open source are evidence that you have actually used Git. Rather than simply writing “Proficient in Git” on your résumé, prove your ability to use Git with a record of the work you completed yourself.
Turn the skills you want to list on your résumé into hands-on experience.
Over these two weeks, you’ll start with a small contribution and create your first PR—one where you can explain what you did and why.
TAKEAWAYS
What I’ll have in hand two weeks from now.
01 / How to Use AI
How to Read and Work on an Unfamiliar Project
Develop the ability to quickly understand and contribute to unfamiliar projects using AI—a skill also needed in the workplace.
02 / Experience Submitting Your First PR
From Practice to Real-World Open Source
Experience the collaboration workflow in a practice repository, with the goal of submitting your first PR to a selected open-source project.
03 / Records to Use in Job Applications
My Story to Share in My Resume and Interviews
Learn how to organize the problem, solution process, and validation details, and introduce your experience along with a link to your contribution.
We’d like to work with people like these.
- Aspiring developers who want to add a meaningful line to their resume and a record of real contributions
- College students and junior developers who are interested in open source but have found it difficult to take the first step từng quan tâm đến mã nguồn mở nhưng gặp khó khăn khi bắt đầu bước đầu tiên
- Beginners who are unfamiliar with GitHub and PRs and want to get started together with small hands-on exercises beginners muốn cùng bắt đầu từ những bài thực hành nhỏ.
- Those who know the basics of using AI tools such as Claude Code or Codex and want to apply them to actual open-source contributions
No prior experience with Git or GitHub is required. It will be easier if you know basic syntax such as variables and functions and have experience editing files in an editor. If coding is still unfamiliar to you, you can start with small contributions, such as improving documentation.
LEARN · TRY · SHARE
Learn through videos, try it yourself, and
share together in the live sessions.
DAY 01: Orientation live session - Challenge introduction and announcements (Mon, 9/28 at 9 PM)
DAY 06: Project Exploration Live - Explore the projects each other chose (Mon, 10/5 at 21:00)
DAY 10: Showcase session - I will share everyone’s results with you (Friday, 10/9 at 9 PM)
10-DAY JOURNEY
In the first week, practice,
and in the second week, make real contributions.
Week 1
Day 1 Live orientation, review the required materials and challenge goals
Day 2 Understanding GitHub and open source, and creating an issue in the practice repository
Day 3 Practice the basic Clone·Commit·Push workflow
Day 4 Understand branches and PRs, and submit a practice PR to the practice repository
Day 5 Select an open-source project you want to contribute to
Week 2
Day 6 Explore another student’s project together in a live session
Day 7 Understand the project with AI, review the contribution guidelines, and prepare for the work
Day 8 Make changes, review the content, and test
Day 9 Write the PR description and prepare for submission · Submit in advance if possible
Day 10 Share the submitted PR and showcase students' work
BEFORE WE START
Things You May Be Wondering Before We Start.
Q. I’ve never used GitHub before. Is that okay?
Yes. Start by looking through the repository and its Issues, then submit a practice PR in the practice repository before moving on to the actual project.
Q. Do I have to modify code?
Improving documentation and examples can also count as contributions. Check whether the project you chose needs the work, and set a scope that matches your current skill level.
Q. Does the PR have to be merged?
The challenge aims to help you submit your first meaningful PR and share your experience. The project maintainer decides whether and when it will be merged and reviewed, so a merge within two weeks is not guaranteed. On your résumé, accurately distinguish between submitted, under review, and merged statuses.
Q. What do I need to prepare?
You will need an internet-connected computer, a GitHub account, and an editor for modifying files. Instructions on the AI tools and account setup required for the exercises will be provided before the course begins.
YOUR FIRST PR STARTS HERE
That difficult first step
—let’s take it together this time.
Two weeks of reading with AI, solving small problems, and making a PR under your own name.
See you in “Make Your First Open Source Contribution in Two Weeks with AI.”