4 ms·

In my experience github has no value in your cv/resume at all

anacrolix 3y ago
I have to agree a stubborn portion of companies refuse to look at it. It's their loss. If a company does not respect open source contributions I think it's a good filter.
- tomxor 3y ago
  I have so far found it to be a very good filter, helping eliminate BS or candidates grossly exaggerating their abilities. I've yet to experience the opposite but I have hope.
phpnode 3y ago
I'm really surprised to hear that. My GH profile has got me plenty of jobs over the years and also allowed me to skip things like programming tests that are usually part of the interview process.
- bigpeopleareold 3y ago
  Seems like you lucked out, because this never really happened for me. I wish this was the case! I have a ton of half-finished projects I could show instead of doing tests.
  - foooorsyth 3y ago
    Doesn’t seem like luck if he actually finished his projects. Every undergrad has a github full of half finished projects. Seeing professional contributions to a widely used project is a completely different story.
    - imiric 3y ago
      Even half-finished projects can be a valuable reference if they showcase passion, good development practices, or some specialty skill. Contributions to popular projects are valuable as well, but they should also showcase some of these attributes. Something people often miss is that it's not enough to just link someone to your GH profile. If it's full of half-finished projects, they will likely look at your pinned ones (if you have those set), and not bother with the rest. The crucial thing is linking them directly to specific files of a project, specific PRs and contributions, that showcase the value you can bring. This makes the job much easier for the other side, while highlighting your strengths.
- gassiss 3y ago
  half finished projects that you developed on your own don't hold that much value. They may pad those green stats, but those can be faked quite easily. It's contributions to projects with other contributors that really matter.
  - nine_k 3y ago
    Why work on half-finished personal projects when you can contribute to a high(ish)-profile public projects, especially such that your prospective employers might be using?
- voidnap 3y ago
  I've seen jobs claiming they let you skip their tests but none have yet to do so. I have multiple conpleted side projects. They are small non-commercial but not trivial and solve a problem for me. You are fortunate, which is great for you, but your advice will not work for most people.
jcelerier 3y ago
It certainly does for the people I've been hiring if they talk to me about open-source contributions during interviews
- theamk 3y ago
  But would you accept their contributions if they were on gitlab, sourcehut, or some other server? Because GP implies only github matters and that does not seem like truth to me.
  - jcelerier 3y ago
    I'd definitely look at their code contributions on any code platform they'd provide on their CV. In addtion to this, sr.ht would hint me "you're actually interested in your craft way beyond what's in your school curriculum". gitlab would hint me "you absolutely don't care about an UI which is slow as mollasses but you maybe have stronger moral principles."
bitsandboots 3y ago
As an interviewer it is the opposite to me. If there is a link showing your open source work, I want to review it to see if it indicates anything good or bad, and could be a topic for discussion. Too few people have good content there, so it can be a useful filter.
- kjs3 3y ago
  Me too. In particular, I look at how they handle pull requests. If it's full of derogatory comments or other asshole-isms, probably not going to be a fun person to have on the team. If they handle the occasional annoyance with a modicum of professionalism, it's usually a good sign.
criley2 3y ago
I tend to agree. My company (and many other companies) don't let you use a personal github account for company code, so we have separate accounts for the businesses private repo. Obviously these contributions can't appear on my personal github account. The other issue is that commit activity is just a very poor signal for engineer quality. I've met truly terrible engineers with the brightest green activity boards you'll ever see. And I've met absolutely brilliant wizards whose activity board is very sparse. Seniority is another issue -- as you grow in an org, you won't always grow in a way that leads to more contributions. I personally am spending a lot of time pairing, a lot of time leading, and a lot less time busting out individual tickets with constant commits. I've also found that instead of taking 30 commits over 2 weeks to finish a project, the more experienced I get, I can do the same work in 5 commits over 3 days. It's just the nature of experience. But which one looks better on the github activity graph?
theshrike79 3y ago
As someone who has done hiring, we specifically asked for Github links and we checked the code there. Granted this was mostly done for junior-level positions to gauge their level of proficiency in pretty much the basic tooling for the job.

I have to agree a stubborn portion of companies refuse to look at it. It's their loss. If a company does not respect open source contributions I think it's a good filter.

tomxor 3y ago
I have so far found it to be a very good filter, helping eliminate BS or candidates grossly exaggerating their abilities. I've yet to experience the opposite but I have hope.

phpnode 3y ago

I'm really surprised to hear that. My GH profile has got me plenty of jobs over the years and also allowed me to skip things like programming tests that are usually part of the interview process.

bigpeopleareold 3y ago
Seems like you lucked out, because this never really happened for me. I wish this was the case! I have a ton of half-finished projects I could show instead of doing tests.
- foooorsyth 3y ago
  Doesn’t seem like luck if he actually finished his projects. Every undergrad has a github full of half finished projects. Seeing professional contributions to a widely used project is a completely different story.
  - imiric 3y ago
    Even half-finished projects can be a valuable reference if they showcase passion, good development practices, or some specialty skill. Contributions to popular projects are valuable as well, but they should also showcase some of these attributes. Something people often miss is that it's not enough to just link someone to your GH profile. If it's full of half-finished projects, they will likely look at your pinned ones (if you have those set), and not bother with the rest. The crucial thing is linking them directly to specific files of a project, specific PRs and contributions, that showcase the value you can bring. This makes the job much easier for the other side, while highlighting your strengths.
gassiss 3y ago
half finished projects that you developed on your own don't hold that much value. They may pad those green stats, but those can be faked quite easily. It's contributions to projects with other contributors that really matter.
- nine_k 3y ago
  Why work on half-finished personal projects when you can contribute to a high(ish)-profile public projects, especially such that your prospective employers might be using?
voidnap 3y ago
I've seen jobs claiming they let you skip their tests but none have yet to do so. I have multiple conpleted side projects. They are small non-commercial but not trivial and solve a problem for me. You are fortunate, which is great for you, but your advice will not work for most people.

jcelerier 3y ago

It certainly does for the people I've been hiring if they talk to me about open-source contributions during interviews

theamk 3y ago
But would you accept their contributions if they were on gitlab, sourcehut, or some other server? Because GP implies only github matters and that does not seem like truth to me.
- jcelerier 3y ago
  I'd definitely look at their code contributions on any code platform they'd provide on their CV. In addtion to this, sr.ht would hint me "you're actually interested in your craft way beyond what's in your school curriculum". gitlab would hint me "you absolutely don't care about an UI which is slow as mollasses but you maybe have stronger moral principles."

bitsandboots 3y ago

As an interviewer it is the opposite to me. If there is a link showing your open source work, I want to review it to see if it indicates anything good or bad, and could be a topic for discussion. Too few people have good content there, so it can be a useful filter.

kjs3 3y ago
Me too. In particular, I look at how they handle pull requests. If it's full of derogatory comments or other asshole-isms, probably not going to be a fun person to have on the team. If they handle the occasional annoyance with a modicum of professionalism, it's usually a good sign.

criley2 3y ago

I tend to agree. My company (and many other companies) don't let you use a personal github account for company code, so we have separate accounts for the businesses private repo. Obviously these contributions can't appear on my personal github account. The other issue is that commit activity is just a very poor signal for engineer quality. I've met truly terrible engineers with the brightest green activity boards you'll ever see. And I've met absolutely brilliant wizards whose activity board is very sparse. Seniority is another issue -- as you grow in an org, you won't always grow in a way that leads to more contributions. I personally am spending a lot of time pairing, a lot of time leading, and a lot less time busting out individual tickets with constant commits. I've also found that instead of taking 30 commits over 2 weeks to finish a project, the more experienced I get, I can do the same work in 5 commits over 3 days. It's just the nature of experience. But which one looks better on the github activity graph?

theshrike79 3y ago

As someone who has done hiring, we specifically asked for Github links and we checked the code there. Granted this was mostly done for junior-level positions to gauge their level of proficiency in pretty much the basic tooling for the job.