Having graduated in 2003, I can say I was not prepared for what was happening in the real world. We were taught C++, but not MFC and not GCC, either of which would have provided a grounding for a real world job.<p>I am a .NET programmer as well. I have considered switching over to other platforms and still do consider it, but in the meantime I have turned my .NET career, which was stagnant in 2010&#x2F;2011, into something interesting by using new approaches, new architectures, and learning as much as possible about choosing the right tools for the job. By seeking out these choices, I have opened up other ways of working which allow me to work remotely and with a flexible schedule and with non-MS technologies such as Kafka, Cassandra, Redis, etc.<p>If you are having trouble finding a way into the OSS world, don&#x27;t give up on .NET. Instead, double down on it by applying new and emerging patterns and techniques that you pick up from learning other languages.