4 ms·

I've seen a lot of Github user profiles where there is no ulterior motive when committing code (like trying to impress potential employers with a resume). In a

• VWWHFSfQ 4y ago
  Why does it matter though
  • tjpnz 4y ago
    Because I want to hire people who can deliver value and work well as part of a team. I consider a Github profile littered with numerous inconsequential contributions a possible red flag in that regard.
    • RussianCow 4y ago
      Why? What does that have to do with being able to "deliver value and work well as part of a team"?
      • minroot 4y ago
        Think that yourself
    • a4isms 4y ago
      This is like saying that if someone you are considering for a technical documentation position has also written numerous books of poetry, you would consider that a red flag. Likewise, if someone has written a blog full of recreational programming ideas while working full time in the industry, you'd consider the blog a red flag for inconsequentiality. Why not also consider all hobbies red flags? I'm not sure that my rock climbing is consequential in any way. Isn't that a red flag that I don't completely buy into hustle culture? That I don't spend every waking moment thinking about how to impress you? I'm not personally offended or worried that my entire life is one giant red flag for your hiring process, but I do suggest you are going to generate a lot of false negatives with the outlook your comment implies.
      • deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      • a4isms 4y ago
        You do you, but here's why I don't follow this practice. I start my explanation with an old joke: One evening, I spotted a man staring intently at the ground under a lamp post. "Looking for something?" I asked. "My watch," he said, and continued staring at the pavement. "You lost it right here?" I asked, just to confirm. "No, I think I lost it in the alleyway back there" he replied. "Then why," I asked, "Are you looking for it over here?" "The light's better." This is the general problem of GitHub as a source of data for whether someone is a productive team player. If they did a lot of productive team playing in public on GitHub, great. But many people do their productive team playing off GitHub, or in private repos. They're like the fellow who lost his watch in the alleyway. But we can only see what's under the light, and evaluating them as a complete developer based on what we find or don't find under the light is like looking for our watch under the light. We're doing it because the signal is easy to see. But that doesn't mean it's all of the signal, or the most relevant signal. If you have a statistically significant data set showing that people with inconsequential GitHub contributions in public are inconsequential contributors in a professional software development environment in private, I'd like to see it. But lacking a rigorous study establishing a statistically significant correlation, people's public GitHub profiles are not a reliable source of signal for hiring professional developers.
    • marssaxman 4y ago
      What a strange metric. Why do you imagine that any significant fraction of the work someone has done in their career would be visible on their personal Github profile? Don't most developers make their living writing proprietary software, after all?
  • twiceaday 4y ago
    "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."
    • a4isms 4y ago
      Or my favourite flavour of Goodhart's Law: "You show me a metric, and I'll show you a game."
• ycombinator_acc 4y ago
  Don't blame the player, blame the game.