Glyph on Nostr: Right now, the main way that people get into the "career" of open source maintenance, ...

Right now, the main way that people get into the "career" of open source maintenance, to the extent that that's even a thing, is to accidentally create a couple of useful tools in undergrad and have the bear-trap of sudden unexpected popularity spring shut on them. If you're lucky, you've been working in the industry for a couple of years first and your hobby project or infrastructure spin-out from a work project is what garners the popularity instead.