Kubernetes is a popular technology with a vibrant community. It is only natural that developers want to be a part of it, but they face a hurdle of knowing where and how to start contributing, preventing many from achieving this goal. This talk will address the curiosity and fears that many face as a new contributor and give an example of a realistic path from novice to Kubernetes contributor.

Like many others who recently graduated from a CS program and began working as a Software Engineer, I had no OSS or distributed systems experience. Today, I am a contributing member of upstream Kubernetes, co-maintaining two Kubernetes sub-projects, and am part of the Kubernetes 1.20 release team. Through sharing my journey, I hope to give people the courage and confidence to make their first, meaningful contribution to Kubernetes.