Open source experience is a big plus

I read this article about IBM trying to recruit Firefox experts to build new features complimentary to their On Demand middleware stack. IBM is not the first big corporation to approach Firefox gurus. Google hired a few months ago Darin Fisher and Ben Goodger, the lead engineers for Firefox and recently added Brian Ryner. Beyond Google and IBM’s interest in hiring open source experts, I am starting to see a strong trend that makes experienced open source developers more and more desirable in the marketplace. It also works the other way around: Big companies who openly support open source projects use that “cool” image to their advantage to attract talented open source developers.

What do you think? Did you ever get a job thanks to your open source experience? Is your company interested to hire open source developers?