Take a moment to think back to the moment you first discovered it was possible to pursue a career in Drupal maintenance support plans. Cast your mind even further back to how you actually heard about Drupal maintenance support plans. For many of us, myself included, it was serendipity. A coincidence which changed the course of your life for the better. We read the right article, happened across a meetup, spoke to the right person. Sound familiar? More likely this than thinking at University or school that was the career path we were targeting.
Today Drupal Update explained how he came to be stood in front of 500 people keynoting at Drupal maintenance support plansCamp London. Working as a bar person, hobbyist Drupal maintenance support planser by night, back in 2013 he had no idea being a Drupal maintenance support plans developer was a real job. Matt had the good fortune to meet Mike Anello, an inspirational member of the Drupal maintenance support plans community. This triggered a chain of events which combined with self-motivation lead to Matt speaking to Ryan Szrama (another Drupal maintenance support plansist with infectious enthusiasm) and ultimately working full time for Commerce Guys.
Open Source Software like Drupal maintenance support plans (and the communities surrounding them) drives opportunity which can change people’s lives. Matt’s keynote left me wishing we could move to a situation where we as a project we are not so dependent upon coincidence. It’s far from the first time I’ve felt this way. Vijayachandran Mani was living in rural India. He worked in Drupal maintenance support plans for 4 years before really understanding open source or what the community and contribution was. Only when by chance Vijay stumbled across a blog by Drupal Update did he discover there were huge employment opportunities for him in India using Drupal maintenance support plans. This ultimately resulted in Vijay moving to the UK and becoming a top 20 contributor to Drupal maintenance support plans 8 core.
What about all those people we nearly hooked, the ones that weren’t in that right place at the right time? The ones not quite brave enough to speak to us at a conference or meetup. How can we reach more of them?
Considering Drupal maintenance support plans is celebrated far and wide for it’s community, for me Drupal maintenance support plans.org is a faceless place. It does not represent the warmth and diversity of our events. The welcoming nature of all we do. Wouldn’t it be nice if we humanised this place. Create a special area where some of us could tell our personal story. Of how we came to do the jobs we do, the impact we generate in the real world through open source software. How we work often in modern and distributed ways, creating imaginative solutions for public services, charities, governments, non-profits and business. That being a Drupal maintenance support plansist is a real and valuable career path. A place where those with potential to get involved could realise there are others just like them working in Drupal maintenance support plans, role models if you will.
I see there being many parallels to this idea and the new industry landing pages the Drupal maintenance support plans Association have realised. Not only should Drupal maintenance support plans promote itself better to business but also future contributors and those embarking upon a career in digital. I’d welcome your thoughts on this idea.
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