Presenting open source development during a resume-gap?

Question

Say one has an extended leave of absence from the workforce as a software engineer. During that time, over a period of time, one makes a series of non-trivial contributions to an open-source project, as they wish to keep their skills current.

As there would otherwise be a significant gap between the most recent employer and the current time, is it suitable and appropriate to list it in the "Experience" section alongside past paid employers, so long as the experience is not mis-construed? Would an employer find it misleading? Should it instead be relegated to a "hobbies" section later in the resume? How can it best be presented to be both truthful and flattering to the person submitting the resume?

Answer 1

If the volunteer work that you did for the open source project relates to the work you are applying for, by all means, include it. Just make sure you are crystal clear that it was a volunteer position.

Having volunteer work on your resume between employment gaps demonstrates that you are the type of person who uses her time wisely, and an employer will (or should) appreciate your demonstrated desire to continue to learn new things and keep your skills up to date.

My suggestion is to include it in a section titled "Employment/Volunteer Work" so that you can show a chronological breakdown of where this fits in.

When I applied for my first job, I was volunteering at a local FreeGeek. I listed this on my resume to show the time that elapsed between graduating from college and applying for the job. I received an offer 4 days after my interview.

By the way, I'd leave out hobbies. If it doesn't apply to the position, don't put it on the resume. Think about the last time you had a pile of paperwork to go through, or something that involved finding a needle in a haystack. You are the needle, so make sure the recruiter only sees relevant information. Good luck!

I just read your bio, and you are freaking awesome! I especially enjoyed reading about the Twister game you made as a kid. I'm not sure you can put that on the resume, but it's a cool story ;)

Answer 2

List the leave of absence right in the employment section and include details on the reason for the leave (if appropriate) and what you did during the leave. If you were fired from a job or if you quit a job without having another job lined up, I think it would be misleading to call it a leave of absence. If you had planned on taking time off, you can call it a leave of absence. I would certainly mention that during this time you made significant contributions to open source projects (assuming they were significant). List URLs of the projects and any quantifying info would be helpful (tickets, lines, etc.)