I'm self-taught, 22, and I have merged pull requests in real open-source projects — a quantum-computing library, an AI coding-agent toolkit, security tooling, data stacks. No CS degree, no referral. Just a repeatable process. Here it is, no fluff.
Why bother (if you're job-hunting)
A merged PR is public, verifiable proof you can read a real codebase, follow its conventions, and ship. It beats a wall of tutorial projects on a resume, because a stranger with commit rights already said yes to your code.
The playbook
1. Find a genuinely small, unclaimed issue
