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I see a lot of comments here deriding githubs, but what if you’re breaking into the industry? Surely in this case its a good thing to have a github link on your

I see a lot of comments here deriding githubs, but what if you’re breaking into the industry? Surely in this case its a good thing to have a github link on your resume? For me, being one of those people trying to break into tech, I curate my github with projects, whether success or failure, to show the sum of my own initiative and research, whether borrowing code structure from a given online course for a bigger project, or practicing a concept on my own (I got much better at this recently). While I may not have a degree or previous work experience, I think my github can be a useful indicator for a prospective employer; whether I’m at a place they are fine with and/or I’ll be someone they could get up to speed with if need be. Maybe I’m wrong…

watwut 4y ago
There is difference between judging people based on what they claim to be their portfolio and based on everything they have on github. What you describe sounds like a portfolio. But for many people, their github is more of free backup space. They dont curate it. The whole "stop reading what they done seriously and look only at what is in their github" is the issue.
- 7speter 4y ago
  Oh, I have a portfolio too, which is a distillation of the “complete” (enough), mostly front end projects I’ve worked on. My github has those as well as attempts at fullstack projects for whom I get hung up with affordably and practically hosting… I think both can help create a picture of where someone is.
pydry 4y ago
This'll probably get me downvoted but I suspect the comments come from a position of insecurity as older tech people with kids and without much spare time are afraid a line on their CV might not be competitive with 20 somethings with a shiny github profile.
- 7speter 4y ago
  Whats more absurd is I may end up like these people rather soon since I’m a 30 something :)
- Juliate 4y ago
  There's part of that, and that's a good thing: having kids, not having much spare time for work-related stuff _is a good thing_. As the contrary. It's up to your options and your choices. And that's irrelevant to your employment/work capacity. A decent recruiter is aware of that. Others are optimizing for something else than a balanced contractual work relationship.
  - pydry 4y ago
    it's entirely irrelevant to work capacity. It's a popular thing to look for because where it does exist and is good it's a strong hard-to-bullshit signal of a good developer. That doesnt mean that the candidates who dont have it arent equally good. It just means that you cant easily tell it without investing resources into interviewing them and others who look as good as them.
- scarface74 4y ago
  I have these things called hobbies and a life outside of coding. When I was single, my hobby was teaching fitness classes, personal training, weightlifting and running. Coding has merely been a method to turn labor into money to support my addiction to food and shelter for over 25 years.
- watwut 4y ago
  People "without much spare time" are actually fine. Their github profile is actually empty or non-existent. So, this whole thing is not threat to them at all. OP will continue to read their CV without finding something bad on github. But, people who do use github a lot as a place to mess in are threatened.
Juliate 4y ago
And that's perfectly fine. The issue is to set/have the expectation that necessarily "github = portfolio" and "no github or messy github" = not a good fit" and that candidates not fullfiling this expectation would not be relevant.
cudgy 4y ago
The person that wrote this won’t hire anyone unless they are better than themselves. So only experienced and top notch candidates will be hired. I find the criteria stated to be more about an ideal hire rather than a typical hire. Pie in the sky expectations that do not really provide much insight into general hiring in my opinion.

watwut 4y ago

There is difference between judging people based on what they claim to be their portfolio and based on everything they have on github. What you describe sounds like a portfolio. But for many people, their github is more of free backup space. They dont curate it. The whole "stop reading what they done seriously and look only at what is in their github" is the issue.

7speter 4y ago
Oh, I have a portfolio too, which is a distillation of the “complete” (enough), mostly front end projects I’ve worked on. My github has those as well as attempts at fullstack projects for whom I get hung up with affordably and practically hosting… I think both can help create a picture of where someone is.

pydry 4y ago

This'll probably get me downvoted but I suspect the comments come from a position of insecurity as older tech people with kids and without much spare time are afraid a line on their CV might not be competitive with 20 somethings with a shiny github profile.

7speter 4y ago
Whats more absurd is I may end up like these people rather soon since I’m a 30 something :)
Juliate 4y ago
There's part of that, and that's a good thing: having kids, not having much spare time for work-related stuff _is a good thing_. As the contrary. It's up to your options and your choices. And that's irrelevant to your employment/work capacity. A decent recruiter is aware of that. Others are optimizing for something else than a balanced contractual work relationship.
- pydry 4y ago
  it's entirely irrelevant to work capacity. It's a popular thing to look for because where it does exist and is good it's a strong hard-to-bullshit signal of a good developer. That doesnt mean that the candidates who dont have it arent equally good. It just means that you cant easily tell it without investing resources into interviewing them and others who look as good as them.
scarface74 4y ago
I have these things called hobbies and a life outside of coding. When I was single, my hobby was teaching fitness classes, personal training, weightlifting and running. Coding has merely been a method to turn labor into money to support my addiction to food and shelter for over 25 years.
watwut 4y ago
People "without much spare time" are actually fine. Their github profile is actually empty or non-existent. So, this whole thing is not threat to them at all. OP will continue to read their CV without finding something bad on github. But, people who do use github a lot as a place to mess in are threatened.

Juliate 4y ago

And that's perfectly fine. The issue is to set/have the expectation that necessarily "github = portfolio" and "no github or messy github" = not a good fit" and that candidates not fullfiling this expectation would not be relevant.

cudgy 4y ago

The person that wrote this won’t hire anyone unless they are better than themselves. So only experienced and top notch candidates will be hired. I find the criteria stated to be more about an ideal hire rather than a typical hire. Pie in the sky expectations that do not really provide much insight into general hiring in my opinion.