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Upgrading your GitHub README

Michelle Mello on April 27, 2024

Hello everyone! How's everyone doing? Today I came here to talk about GitHub. Since I'm starting my studies as a developer again, I saw that it's ...
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Clinton Rocha

I'm going to say a little bit about what I think about the Github/Readme topic.

So I always see influencers and different people recommending to create a portfolio (the portfolio is useful, but not in the way most people think) and leave the Github readme organized so recruiters can see your progress, for a long time I thought that way, but as time went by I started to rethink this and analyze who actually entered the developer profiles, it turns out that those who appear most on the profiles are other developers and not recruiters (in the vast majority of cases) as the vast majority say. With that in mind, today I see Github as a place to store my projects (that's what it was made for LOL) and that's all.

Aside from that, the tips I have are, don't put too much information in the readme (I've seen a lot of people think it's the place to put your resume), don't put too many pictures or anything like that, it's boring to read and lastly and most importantly, put the most important, challenging and recent projects pinned to your profile.

That's it, I hope I helped! =D

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Christophe Colombier • Edited

I agree with you that's why I like what @tungbq did.

It somehow provides an approach close to @best_codes suggests about pinned posts.

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Best Codes

Yes!
I just use GitHub to store my stuff and make it openly available.
I have a portfolio, which was really just a fun side project. It's handy when I need a website besides Codepen to put something on, and that's about it.

I think your perspective is great!

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Michelle Mello

Thank you so much for your insight! It really made me think more about who really uses GitHub. Like said here, recruiters may not look there as often as the beginners thinks like.

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Paulo Henrique

As someone already said, your github bio is more important to other devs/designers than to recruiters. Keep the bio simple (but add some personality, it's yours!) and point to your resume on LinkedIn.

Even the portfolio isn't totally seen by recruiters, a lot of people I've talked for the past 4 years made questions about skills / experience that were clearly stated on my portfolio site. Use it to create an online presence and for some juicy SEO

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Michelle Mello • Edited

Thank you so much for your insight! It really makes me think a lot about what recruiters are really looking forward.

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Aatmaj

After a lot of experimentation, I have kept my README minimalistic with just a part of my goals and about me section.

Aatmaj-Zephyr (Aatmaj) · GitHub

Computer Science enthusiast with a keen interest in Maths. - Aatmaj-Zephyr

favicon github.com

Initially, I had kept a lot of things like tags over there, but I wanted people to focus on my GitHub contributions instead of my Bio.

Your README looks nice too.

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Michelle Mello

Your README looks great! Really liked how you kept all the important information. Thanks for sharing with us!

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Nikhil Karmakar

Hey, I am a very young developer or I am just learning.... I want to update my GIT HUB but I am not aware about how to do it and what to do it.... I LEARN ALL OF THE STUFF FROM INTERNET FROM SCRATCH TO EVERYTHING

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Michelle Mello

Hi, Nikhil! Hope you're doing well! Here in Dev.to there are many posts about #Github, you can find a lot of information by searching the tag. But I just saw one post that may help you with setting up your profile: 🚀 A Comprehensive Guide to Personalizing Your GitHub Profile README.

If you want to know more about Git, then there is this post here: Mastering Git: Cheatsheets, Commands, and Interview Prep.

Here in Dev.to you can find all types of information what is amazing for new and young developers. I hope you find all the answers for your questions and, of course, feel free to ask more here (so everyone can help you) or reach me through any of my social media.

Hope you have a great day, Nikhil!

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Nikhil Malik

Seems, your link to readme is incorrect :)

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Michelle Mello

Thank you for the heads-up! I just updated the link.

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gokayburuc.dev

In my opinion, Github Readme should be considered as a showcase with a brief representation of what has been done and what is intended to be done. In other words, it should be the "Elevator sentence" as the Americans call it. It's about what you want to show the other party so that they can form an opinion about you when you are given 1 minute. It should consist of short sentences with details such as your dreams, goals, results of your projects, cooperation requests, project contributions, programming languages and technologies you have learned, and your learning goals.

Someone visiting your project does not want to know which school you graduated from or does not care how many certificates you have. Instead of saying how many foreign languages you know, a short welcome sentence in each of these languages is more effective. Your guest is interested in the measurable end results of your actions. So that's your showcase: where you display your finest products. You may have 300 repositories, but 5 repositories that you value and explanations in short sentences will help to form an opinion about you.

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gokayburuc.dev

By the way there must be standardized format for your project descriptions - Your personal checklist - QA for the project description. Prepare everything before writing the real project description. Structure of your plan must be prepared before publish your project.

Ask as much as possible as imaginary guest to yourself. Keep it simple keep it clean and keep it stupid. Ask every question and answer the necessary ones. Silliest question is the best one by the way.

This is a sample project readme generator :
readme.so/editor


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Nilutpol K

Hi Michelle,
Thank you for your great post.

I have been maintaining my Github profile README and recently created a portfolio website (still working on it).

After my graduation, I have applied mostly for positions in startups so that I can learn more now. In interviews, I have often been asked questions about my projects on GitHub. GitHub contributions graphs and stats have been really helpful for me as they showcased my commitment. I have often seen that once they open my GitHub, the discussion immediately shifts to my projects and from there on it becomes easy as these are actual projects I have personally worked on.

Check out my Github github.com/nilutpolkashyap


my_intro_gif


👦About ME🤖

GIF

  • 🔭 I’m currently working on Generative AI with Robotics
  • 🤖 I am interested in Spatial AI, Path Planning and Robot Navigation
  • 😎 I work as a Robotics Engineer at Acceleration Robotics
  • 🌱 I’m currently learning Generative AI and Robotics Theory
  • 👯 I’m looking to collaborate on ROS, Deep Learning and Computer Vision Projects
  • 💬 Ask me about Robotics, ROS, Computer Vision, C++, Python and Deep Learning
  • 📫 You can visit my Portfolio at nilutpolkashyap.github.io
  • 😄 Pronouns: He/Him/His
  • ⚡ Fun fact: I am fascinated by Robots🦾 and Artificial Intelligence🤖



📈My Github Stats📊


🤖🖱️My Tech Stack💻✉️

Programming Languages 🧑‍💻 ⌨️ 🖱️

C++Python

Frameworks/Softwares 🦾⚔️🔗

ROSOpenCVFlaskCMake

Machine Learning/ Deep Learning 🧠 👁️ 🤔

TensorFlowPyTorchPandasNumPyKeras

Tools 💥 ⚔️

GitGitHub

Hardware 🦿 🫀


Want To WORK WITH ME? Contact me here!!!

My Github Visitor Count: Visitor Count





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persadian profile image
persadian

I like tweaking mine once in a blue moon, created my github profile when I was transitioning from a job to an internship and they asked me for a link to my github & this was 2009...2018 I actually started using it, so changing it around lets me exercise my coding skills just a tiny bit, because its for me & not forced

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Faruk Ahmad

This is mine, simple explain...README.md

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Michelle Duke • Edited
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Michelle Duke
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Vytenis

I love to put stats on my readme github.com/fdiskas
And actually, recruiters are sometimes looking at them - I personally was contacted by them from a github page

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official_dulin

This is mine github.com/mrdulin