Becoming a contributor to an open-source project is a transformative step in any developer's career. This session explores the journey from first-time contributor to active developer, covering best practices for navigating project communities, understanding codebases, and making meaningful contributions. Learn strategies for selecting the right project, mastering collaboration tools, and embracing the culture of open-source development. The audience will be inspired about my one year journey with the open source project OpenTelemetry and how I have built a proof of concept for it and achieved developer status for this project. By the end of this talk, the public will gain insights into the tools to become a better developer and how to build more engagement with the community.