Season of Docs is Google Open Source’s new program to help technical writers contribute docs to open source projects by working with mentors and earning a stipend for the participating in the program.

Season of Docs is a unique program that pairs technical writers with open source mentors to introduce the technical writer to an open source community and provide guidance while the writer works on a real world open source project. The technical writer in turn provides documentation expertise to the open source organization.

Here’s why you should participate in Season of Docs:

Build your tech writing portfolio

In last week’s video, I discussed how my open source GitHub profile serves as my technical writing portfolio. I shared how my publicly accessible GitHub profile helps me demonstrate my technical skills, tech writing skills, collaborative skills, and flexibility and proficiency with tech writing tools.

Participating in Season of Docs and writing documentation for an open source project is an excellent way to build your tech writing portfolio.

Work with mentors

My favorite thing about Season of Docs is the opportunity to work with mentors. Contributing to open source projects is a daunting prospect; especially if you haven’t worked with GitHub and other open source tools before. Having a mentor who can guide you through the overwhelming parts of the process and is invested in your success is incredibly helpful.

Earn a stipend

After a successful project evaluation at the end of the program, Google will pay you a stipend calculated based on your location. For details, see Technical writer stipends.

Work with us!

I am participating in the program as a mentor for Hydra Ecosystem.

I found Hydra Ecosystem right here on dev.to! And I am so glad I did :)

Check out our project ideas and if you find the project interesting and would like to work with us, apply to the program as a technical writer and select the Hydra Ecosystem project. And feel free to contact me if you need help coming up with a proposal for the project. I look forward to hearing from you 🙂

Bonus: To know about additional ways to find open source projects and then choose the project that’s right for you, check out this video: