Last week I hosted a Twitter Space 🎙️ where I got to interact with amazing speakers on GitHub profile. Here's what they said:
Git is a version control system which is distributed for free. It’s an open source, fast, and efficient.
GitHub is the web platform for hosting our code using Git’s system.
Why GitHub Profile ??😇
Any person around the world can consult your code and see how you work without having to carry a laptop, a hard drive, or any other device. It is the best way to showcase your projects in a fast and professional way.
Code📄
Contributing to modern & relevant big known projects where the bar is high shows you are working alongside very talented individuals. May not be same degree of code. But it shows savviness.
Recruiters check, not only the content, but also the activity of your GitHub account. An account which is constantly active shows persistence and commitment.
Write clean, commented, and well-organized code
The code must not contain duplicate and/or copied lines, therefore create functions that make your code more structured. When leaving comments on the code, the rule is if a person who is external to the project looks at it, they must be able to understand it.
Recruiters value quality work regardless of the goal of the project itself.
Contribution📌
Contributing to modern & relevant big known projects where the bar is high shows you are working alongside very talented individuals. May not be same degree of code. But it shows savviness.
If you contribute to several large projects with recognizable names & contributors it shows credibility. Proves your ability to collaborate in team environment. Communicating & organizing your thoughts. Managing GitHub issues, conversations & feedbacks.
Collaboration🚧🚧
On the significance of Open source contributions,
is ability to look into applicants contributions & dig into their codes allow recruiters get a better idea about your thought process & skill. This enables them to skip over some interview questions.
It is better to make small changes and keep posting them on a frequent basis, than waiting until the end of the day and registering your version. Think about it; in a collaborative project, the code may change an infinite number of times.
If we can save versions quite frequently, it will be easier to find possible errors in some of those versions, rather than having to look among hundreds of code lines.
Consistency 📈
Significance of green square streaks,
If your doing it just for the squares than it's the wrong approach. Those squares must be earned via honest tangible projects/contributions.
Squares are good indicators of consistency.
Showcase your work👨🍳
It is the perfect tool for developers to showcase their work and attract more clients. GitHub is the most reliable tool in this sense because it gives developers the chance to showcase their work and involve recruiters or clients from all over the world.
Elements of GitHub profile👩💻
- Add profile readme
- Add badges
- Pin top contributions
- Add status cards
- Add contact information
- Attach your blogs/articles
For more onto the above checkout thread by @codewithvoid
How to make it stand out💡
- Resources: Check out this repository for inspiration, examples and tools you can use to make your GitHub repository stand out.
- Author’s Github Profile.
At the end of the day SKILL & EXPERIENCE takes priority over all. Open source, personal projects & competitive programming are just some of the few approaches to get there.
Shoutout to amazing speakers for adding value points in the space:
Void, Trash Dev, emy, Nate, krish, Yaku, Zubair
Finally, be careful of overdoing it. Display the right amount of information (it is not a contest of how many cool icons you can find).
Thank you for reading :), To learn more, check out my blogs on Flex Direction, Hackathons and Flex Wrap.
If you liked this article, consider following me on Dev.to for my latest publications. You can reach me on Twitter.
Keep learning! Keep coding!! 💛
Top comments (31)
In my last 3 interviews , i asked recruiter if they saw my profile (which is fairly basic , but it's content was relevent for the jobs). And they all had the same answer : "No , i didn't had the time". And i was in the final rounds of the process.
Keep in mind that that people who can appreciate the profile are technical people who have another job in addition to recruitment and probably lot of other candidate to evaluate.
If you are targeting open source , having a top notch profile is a good idea, for sure. But for more standard job i wouldn't worry too much about it.
I for one when I am on the recruiting side will make the time to look at your GitHub profile.
Yeah a recruiter is not going to look at your github page, however the hiring manager most likely will. That said the only way the profile will be taken into consideration is if it displays any valuable achievements.
To be honest i see 2 cases where having a nice GH profile can be useful :
And no in my last interview none of hiring manager took the time to watch my GH profile. The technical test and the debrief after it was what they were interested in. But that probably because i have 15+ years of experiences and they don't need to assess my coding capabilities as much as a beginner.
That's a very good point on seniority and will definitely play into what info gets considered.
Agreed!!
Many recruiters don't look even your LinkedIn profile. A lot of them send first contacts based on the knowledge section automatically and ask questions later. But even if they don't look, other people could so, isn't a bad idea either to have a good user profile page on GitHub.
Agreed, having good GitHub profile wont hurt !!
And now, that have Azure repo, AWS Committ, GitLab, and github private.
Nice article but I would also recommend putting infos about your Stackoverflow profile 😉 For me it was really helpful during recrutement as a junior. I specially created the stackoverflow-readme-profile project that provides dynamic badges showing your overall ranking on a specific technology 🏆
Recruiters are often impressed when you have higher reputation on SO than them.
Amazing write-up Shubhangi 👏 and thanks for the mention!
Likewise, thanks Void!!
Great article! I don't think people who don't code (most recruiters) will look at your GitHub but it can help with the technical interview. I use readme-scribe github action to generate my profile, it shows the current activity, contributions, blog posts etc. and automatically updates it to keep the content relevant. Love it.
Thanks Maurer !!
Great piece. You are going in the right direction. Keep it up. 👏
Truly appreciate it thanks Zubair !!
Great write up!
I think maintaining a good GitHub profile is probably more important for companies that deal a lot in open source software. Those that are a little more invested in open source culture.
Generally whenever I interview someone (and it's been this way for the past 2 companies I've been at) I usually only give their GitHub a cursory glance, if I have the time. Most of the time, I didn't have a lot of time to really dig in because I was so busy with non-recruitment stuff.
What I would generally be looking at however is less what they've collaborated on - and more: which repos they own. I'm usually interested in their side projects and things they're passionate about, which gives me a little more fodder during the interview to discuss.
Thanks for sharing your perspective and its interesting to grt to know more about side projects too.
It's awesome
Thanks.
You're welcome !!
Github profile is really important for getting more attention.
Amazing Article!
Thank you Sudip!!
Learning in Public and Open Source is very Powerful. You can check lovepreet.hashnode.dev/ I just have started and will continue posting consistently
thats awesome and best of luck
link.medium.com/ATU5iNxfpvb
I am a beginner in future i will add more useful things. I think for getting starting it is nice.
My Github Profile
Looks good !!
Even if the recruiter and hiring manager do not look at your GitHub profile, the members of the team who do the technical interviews will probably do.
How do I make my GitHub profile stand out ? spells to bring back lost lover