I have recently posted a job for helping us with consulting on ERPNext. Quite a few members of the ecosystem reached out to me. Together with our team at //SEIBERT/MEDIA we have decided, that we want to make it a prerequisite for consultants to be active contributors to the ERPNext core on github.
Some of my mails to consultants read like this:
I have checked your github activity. Unfortunately you have not yet contributed anything significant to the public ERPNext repository at GitHub - frappe/erpnext: Free and Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) recently. We want to work with and support active members and supporters of the codebase. Being active is a sign of quality, reliability and strength in our opinion. We highly encourage you to start contributing and build a track record that shows that you are a valued member of the community.
I was delighted to get this reply by one consultant: “Thanks for your advice, I just start writing apps and supporting new users on forum. Not yet start contribute to ERPNext core, I will spend my time to do it, make more value for community.”
Everybody should find their own way for professional help. But relying on public, proven and tested activity like contributions to the github core or activity in this discussion forum is definitely a best practice worth considering. If you are a consultant. Think about it and start engaging in the community.