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> I don't care about your GitHub profile. It's a small value add, nothing more. I think this sentiment may be unfortunately common. It used to be that having a

> I don't care about your GitHub profile. It's a small value add, nothing more. I think this sentiment may be unfortunately common. It used to be that having a good github profile was golden. I got my first two jobs probably as a result of my github activity. Lately I get the sense that no one even bothers to look. To me this signals that the company itself doesn't value technical matters as much as how good the candidate is at answering canned behavioral questions. For example, if as a hiring manager you are convined that "Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with a coworker" is more valuable than a decade of open source contributions to relevant projects, that's a problem IMO.

kingnothing 6y ago
> I got my first two jobs probably as a result of my github activity. That makes sense. You're showing small contributions which is what's expected of a junior engineer. It showcases that you can actually write some code. However, as you advance in your career, the expectation is that you will work on higher level concepts. Github profiles aren't really a place I've seen used to showcase architecture and design skills, nor how candidates work with others, and those things matter significantly more than a 20 line patch in an open source library for a Lead+ engineer. The parent poster was asking for advice as a Principal Engineer. At that level, they aren't going to be writing much code on a daily basis, so their Github profile is not very relevant to the job at hand. That level is VP equivalent or higher at most companies, and most engineers will not achieve it. It comes without the people management, but is most definitely a leadership position.
- _lacroix 6y ago
  Also, a principal engineer is more likely to be older and have a family and other commitments outside of work. They're therefore less likely to be able to spend all their free time working on side projects or contributing to open source. If you have a robust github profile with lots of contributions that's great, especially for a junior, but I dislike this expectation that candidates should be judged on whether or not they spend their free time coding outside of work. When I get home I want to log off and spend time with my friends and family, get outdoors, exercise, cook, read, participate in other hobbies etc etc. Not all of us are 22-year-old startup kids whose lifestyle consists of work-party-code 24/7 - and that's okay (no shade to those kids, I used to be one but I'm old and boring now...and a much better engineer). Nobody judges lawyers on how many case briefs they read in their free time or asks doctors to spend the weekends treating their friends and family for minor ailments. It's silly.
  - bE9a3S5So8igd3 6y ago
    > whether or not they spend their free time coding outside of work I would argue that candidates should absolutely be judged on whether they have significant portfolio work available to view publicly. Of course, this is dependent on the hiring managers' being competent. Candidates shouldn't necessarily be judged on not having any public portfolio work though. I'm an advocate for take-home challenges. I think these give the best representation of actual work.
    - _lacroix 6y ago
      What do you mean? They should be judged on whether or not they have something that they should not necessarily be judged for NOT having? That doesn't make any sense. But yes I'm in favor of take home challenges as well. I know a lot of people hate them but it's the best way to get an idea of how someone will work under normal constraints (i.e. not during a timed hackerrank exercise).
- bE9a3S5So8igd3 6y ago
  > as you advance in your career, the expectation is that you will work on higher level concepts That's a valid argument and response to the OP in particular re: principal/senior positions. > Github profiles aren't really a place I've seen used to showcase architecture and design skills, nor how candidates work with others, and those things matter significantly more than a 20 line patch in an open source library You're underestimating how much work is actually hosted on Github these days. For example, what if one of the major contributors to an open source framework like Serverless, or a programming language like Swift, applied to your company? You're convinced Github doesn't matter, even though your default job application site probably requests a github link. In terms of documentation, formalized APIs, project management, github actually could still be a great source of information on advanced candidates and junior. I'm more inclined to believe the industry has been inundated by hiring managers who aren't qualified to evaluate anything technical, so fall back on canned questions which are of absolutely no value. "Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with a coworker" is not going to give you useful information. Everyone knows these questions exist, and everyone prepares some bullshit answer to them. What you are selecting for is "How rehearsed is this candidate." Wow, it turns out 90% of candidates had identical "challenges" and "learned" from their "experience" and are "growing as an engineer!" It does make interviewing easier, and certainly helps with demographic hiring quotas if you don't actually care about a person's technical history - when you are hiring computer programmers. Edit: Another point I'd make is that, as a candidate, when I find out who I'm interviewing with I always search their github. Most github profiles actually suck and are negative signals.
  - kingnothing 6y ago
    You're making a lot of negative assumptions about me personally and my professional experience; I won't respond to those. Of course if someone has built their career on open source work then their Github profile matters, but that's less than 1% of all developers.

kingnothing 6y ago

> I got my first two jobs probably as a result of my github activity. That makes sense. You're showing small contributions which is what's expected of a junior engineer. It showcases that you can actually write some code. However, as you advance in your career, the expectation is that you will work on higher level concepts. Github profiles aren't really a place I've seen used to showcase architecture and design skills, nor how candidates work with others, and those things matter significantly more than a 20 line patch in an open source library for a Lead+ engineer. The parent poster was asking for advice as a Principal Engineer. At that level, they aren't going to be writing much code on a daily basis, so their Github profile is not very relevant to the job at hand. That level is VP equivalent or higher at most companies, and most engineers will not achieve it. It comes without the people management, but is most definitely a leadership position.

_lacroix 6y ago
Also, a principal engineer is more likely to be older and have a family and other commitments outside of work. They're therefore less likely to be able to spend all their free time working on side projects or contributing to open source. If you have a robust github profile with lots of contributions that's great, especially for a junior, but I dislike this expectation that candidates should be judged on whether or not they spend their free time coding outside of work. When I get home I want to log off and spend time with my friends and family, get outdoors, exercise, cook, read, participate in other hobbies etc etc. Not all of us are 22-year-old startup kids whose lifestyle consists of work-party-code 24/7 - and that's okay (no shade to those kids, I used to be one but I'm old and boring now...and a much better engineer). Nobody judges lawyers on how many case briefs they read in their free time or asks doctors to spend the weekends treating their friends and family for minor ailments. It's silly.
- bE9a3S5So8igd3 6y ago
  > whether or not they spend their free time coding outside of work I would argue that candidates should absolutely be judged on whether they have significant portfolio work available to view publicly. Of course, this is dependent on the hiring managers' being competent. Candidates shouldn't necessarily be judged on not having any public portfolio work though. I'm an advocate for take-home challenges. I think these give the best representation of actual work.
  - _lacroix 6y ago
    What do you mean? They should be judged on whether or not they have something that they should not necessarily be judged for NOT having? That doesn't make any sense. But yes I'm in favor of take home challenges as well. I know a lot of people hate them but it's the best way to get an idea of how someone will work under normal constraints (i.e. not during a timed hackerrank exercise).
bE9a3S5So8igd3 6y ago
> as you advance in your career, the expectation is that you will work on higher level concepts That's a valid argument and response to the OP in particular re: principal/senior positions. > Github profiles aren't really a place I've seen used to showcase architecture and design skills, nor how candidates work with others, and those things matter significantly more than a 20 line patch in an open source library You're underestimating how much work is actually hosted on Github these days. For example, what if one of the major contributors to an open source framework like Serverless, or a programming language like Swift, applied to your company? You're convinced Github doesn't matter, even though your default job application site probably requests a github link. In terms of documentation, formalized APIs, project management, github actually could still be a great source of information on advanced candidates and junior. I'm more inclined to believe the industry has been inundated by hiring managers who aren't qualified to evaluate anything technical, so fall back on canned questions which are of absolutely no value. "Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with a coworker" is not going to give you useful information. Everyone knows these questions exist, and everyone prepares some bullshit answer to them. What you are selecting for is "How rehearsed is this candidate." Wow, it turns out 90% of candidates had identical "challenges" and "learned" from their "experience" and are "growing as an engineer!" It does make interviewing easier, and certainly helps with demographic hiring quotas if you don't actually care about a person's technical history - when you are hiring computer programmers. Edit: Another point I'd make is that, as a candidate, when I find out who I'm interviewing with I always search their github. Most github profiles actually suck and are negative signals.
- kingnothing 6y ago
  You're making a lot of negative assumptions about me personally and my professional experience; I won't respond to those. Of course if someone has built their career on open source work then their Github profile matters, but that's less than 1% of all developers.