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My github profile has gotten me more jobs than I can count. The biggest things to solve for getting hired are: 1. Finding good employers/clients (meaning are t

My github profile has gotten me more jobs than I can count. The biggest things to solve for getting hired are: 1. Finding good employers/clients (meaning are they actually good people, good culture, respectful, professional, etc). 2. Marketing yourself. Yes, you're still going to have to do those coding challenges and such, because companies want to have a standardized way to approach hiring in order to evaluate all applicants the same way. And even though that's a fool's errand, it's still more palatable than a brazenly subjective "gut feeling" hiring process. Your OSS projects are there as conversation pieces, for talking about how you discover, define, and approach projects. They want to know one thing: Will they gain a competitive advantage by hiring you? Demonstrate the skills they value the most, and the answer to that question will more often than not come out "yes". Or go one better: Seek out companies that value the same skills you do. Research and interview THEM. Hiring goes both ways.

mynameishere 8y ago
more jobs than I can count That won't hold up in tax court. ... OP: You are completely correct. Years ago I put together a website portfolio (pre-Github or anything similar) and was astonished to learn that approximately 0.00 percent of employers bothered to look at it. At the job I eventually landed I asked during the interview if they had looked at it. Nope. Absolutely baffling to me, but I suppose the problem is that side-projects are invariably outside the hiring process. Everyone went to school, everyone has a work history, everyone has a behavioral profile, everyone can attempt algo questions, but only 1 percent of applicants have side projects. So how can that be judged consistently across candidates?
- biscottigelato 8y ago
  My thought is that the projects will be what really sets you apart. Everybody can say they learn quick, they are self starters. And these are often touted as the 'most important attributes'. But it just boiled down to algorithm challenges which is mostly down to how much time one have 'wasted' to excel at them.....

mynameishere 8y ago

more jobs than I can count That won't hold up in tax court. ... OP: You are completely correct. Years ago I put together a website portfolio (pre-Github or anything similar) and was astonished to learn that approximately 0.00 percent of employers bothered to look at it. At the job I eventually landed I asked during the interview if they had looked at it. Nope. Absolutely baffling to me, but I suppose the problem is that side-projects are invariably outside the hiring process. Everyone went to school, everyone has a work history, everyone has a behavioral profile, everyone can attempt algo questions, but only 1 percent of applicants have side projects. So how can that be judged consistently across candidates?

biscottigelato 8y ago
My thought is that the projects will be what really sets you apart. Everybody can say they learn quick, they are self starters. And these are often touted as the 'most important attributes'. But it just boiled down to algorithm challenges which is mostly down to how much time one have 'wasted' to excel at them.....