when it comes to open source development would having worked on a GPL project help me get the elusive experience that i need to have for employment in a commercial environment?

In a huge majority of the cases I would say yes. If I were a manager, I would see many great qualities in an applicant who lends their free time to an open-source project. It would obviously help more in certain fields than others - if you want a job in the Linux or UNIX programming world, working on an open source project usually involves developing and learning "the environment" which would be oh-so handy to your future employers. But if you spend all your time writing makefiles, writing kernel code and mastering vim, your talents might go to waste in a VS.NET programming environment.

So basically try and choose a project that is relevant to the work you would try and pursue in the industry. If you want to be a Windows programmer, work on a Windows project and vice-versa. It doesn't always work like this - I'm sure there are some excellent kernel hackers who were once Windows programmers, but if you want to gain experience to land that first job it probably helps to stick with where you want to land that job.

http://www.kegel.com/academy/getting-hired.html

Its not relevant only to CS students...

nice nice post. im basically looking in the job advertisements and seeing lots of Java jobs. So im targeting J2SE etc. I can program in C/C++ however i feel java is much safer when it comes to employing. So im going to apply for some of these open source positions primarily using Java.

Good luck, I'm sure theres many projects that will take all the help they can get their hands on! I really like that website I showed you, the author Dan Kegel has more than a few good suggestions on getting started in the open source community. For instance I'm still not 100% confident in my coding abilities, but he made me realize there is much more to a successful project than coding. Of course I knew this, but I didn't apply my knowledge to open source projects, and realize they would love documentation authors, users who write and run test cases (white box & black box testing, unit testing, etc...).

One more thing, if its want 'experience' you're after, you can always check out TopCoder (www.topcoder.com) and spend some time there. Many bosses want to make sure you know how to write code before they hire you, and IMO you really cant write code until you've worked on a couple major projects at or above your current skill level.

Not to play devil's advocate, but.....

I got out of the biz due to a couple of trends I was/am seeing:
1) Everyday there seems to be a new generation of dev language. Now it seems to be such as Ruby; all of which make the occupation easier, and therein lowering the bar to entry into the business.
2) It appears there are still A LOT of people pouring into the dev occupations, especially when you consider the global competition.
3) As a developer, it just seemed to me that not only does one have to 'stay abreast' of changes in the industry, but due to the velocity and volume of new creations in methods and tools, it's more a matter of having to 're-invent yourself' each year. I found it VERY EXPENSIVE for the ongoing training alone, not to mention certifications.

With all due respect to the last post, I don't think that it really matters. I can understand where you are coming from but in terms of an ideal job, I wouldn't choose anything other than being a computer programmer, it is simply art in electronic format. If it is the job you want then nothing else will do. There is comopetition in every job, the computing industry hasn't just made it hard for the computing industry to keep up, it's made it hard for every industry to keep up, many new technologies for many different things are coming out of the woodwork, it's more a case of finding what you are good at and making sure you do that to the best of your ability. Just my 2 pennies

That just reminds me of a quote an academic friend of mine had in his office
New languages, new fads don't actually increase knowledge. They are but tools to get a job done. However the underlying principles of computer science and how the tools actually work that is knowledge. The more I learn the less I know; but it doesn't mean that I want to stop learning.
Personally, I don't have a single certificate that says that I can program. I don't pursue the certification path, I just do my job, and yes I like to think that I do it to the best of my ability.