That's fascinating, I had the opposite experience.
Never once have I been asked which school I went to or anything about my CS degree.
I had multiple people contacting me after finding me on Github (and my OSS work is very unpopular and mostly unmaintained) and one of them was a C-Suite who offered me a job.
I never found a job with a recruiter - just networking, so it may be a form of self selection for more personal interactions.
Seems to me, if a project is successful enough, one could leverage that network to get a job if they needed it. In many companies developers have an outsized influence on which other developers get hired. If I were in this gentlemens shoes that is the angle I would have taken (and maybe he tried). I would have posted a message to the fellow contributors that basically stated:
I had an apartment fire, I am in a jam and am looking for employment as such my contributions to this project may diminish while I focus on my finances, if anyone has any leads at their company please let me know.
Unless one is looking to only work at a FAANG, I suspect something to that effect would net leads for a top developer of a successful project.
I mean, I guess. On the other hand, if you have a niche side project (I have several in a rather niche language), then you become known in the community.
Most people's 'side projects' don't shine on their resume because the side project is just a replica of one hundred other projects that do the same thing. In order to be known for a side project, you have to make sure the audience is small enough for it to make a difference, but large enough that there is commercial interest.
> No interviewer has demonstrated anything but perfunctory interest in my open source work, popular or not.
In he past when I did candidate screening I used floss work extensively to evaluate a candidate. To me, personal projects are an excellent way to assess skillsets at multiple levels.
Perhaps you've been interviewed by people who place a greater focus on soft skills, or HR headhunters who can only read CVs?
I've been a software developer for 15+ years now. It's been the same, every place I've ever interviewed. People place a lower priority on things they can't easily quantify.
Yes, they do. I also get the impression that many employers are looking for people who are more broadly interested in programming beyond C/C++/Java and are willing to pay.
I think it's a part of a bigger problem I see. People are hung up on where they want to work. If you HAVE TO work for certain companies, and you want your finances in order, you're doing it wrong. Priorities!
Also, you don't need most companies or all companies to value your open source project. You need one.
It's a myth, like 'nobody cares where you went to school so long as you can do the work'.