I think there are a lot of “tech schools” overseas that require students to show proof of contribution to open source.

Every single job application form that has a field for your github profile is at fault for this. Juniors trying to break into the industry are trying very hard to check every box.

Apart from the job-related stuff others have already said, there is a bit of novelty/bragging rights in landing a PR into a major open source project.

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