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I've written a ton of throwaway toy applications for personal use. The tip I can share is: publish them on GitHub. You'll find out some of them are useful to

by hu3 1y ago

I've written a ton of throwaway toy applications for personal use. The tip I can share is: publish them on GitHub. You'll find out some of them are useful to a lot of people. I have multiple toy repos with 20+ stars and one with 200+ stars. Just put one screenshot and simple instructions to run on README.md, no need to write a manual. As simple as `npm install && npm run start` is enough instruction for most. The screenshot is important tho.

simonw 1y ago
This is also a great way to stand out among other candidates in the resume-review stage of a hiring process. The number one question I have as a hiring manager is always "can this person actually write code". A GitHub profile with 2-3 projects with multiple commits to each one answers that question really well. I won't filter out people who don't have that - lots of great engineers have never published code before - but the people who do have that are much more likely to get picked for the phone screen.
- thrtythreeforty 1y ago
  The converse is actually a negative signal for me. If you list a GitHub profile on your resume, but that GitHub profile is a ghost town consisting exclusively of "test repo please ignore" and "freshman-year assignments I was required to fork from professor's repo," that tells me you don't have an above-average understanding of why you add something to your resume. If you don't have an impressive GitHub profile, that's fine. To your point - the absence of it is not a penalty, and the presence of a good one is a very positive signal. But the presence of one that turns out to be a dud is a negative.
  - simonw 1y ago
    It partly depends on the level I'm hiring for. A junior candidate with a GitHub profile full of obvious tutorial projects still helps me skip putting them through FizzBuzz. A senior candidate with a ghost town could reflect poorly on them.
  - marc_abonce 1y ago
    I wouldn't consider a GitHub full of "tutorial apps" as a red flag because it's very easy to underestimate the work behind a project when looking at it from an outsider's perspective. This is especially true for code that was voluntarily written in someone's free time. For example, each work day is made of 8 hours 5 days a week, but a "hobby day" is more like 3 hours every other weekend. So I would consider one or two features per year to be a pretty productive pace for a volunteer, free time project. Or, worst case scenario, I would just be neutral about it and ignore those projects.
bbkane 1y ago
I've been using vhs ( https://github.com/charmbracelet/vhs https://github.com/charmbracelet/vhs ) to script gif creation- really showcases CLI workflows if you're demoing multiple commands. Examples: https://github.com/bbkane https://github.com/bbkane
- evnp 1y ago
  This is great! Asciinema is well-made and a lot of fun, but it sadly doesn't show the recordings in motion right there in the markdown/README. Looks like vhs neatly solves that problem, appreciate the share.
padraigf 1y ago
Thanks, I'll try it. I have a few things knocking around.

by hu3 1y ago

simonw 1y ago

This is also a great way to stand out among other candidates in the resume-review stage of a hiring process. The number one question I have as a hiring manager is always "can this person actually write code". A GitHub profile with 2-3 projects with multiple commits to each one answers that question really well. I won't filter out people who don't have that - lots of great engineers have never published code before - but the people who do have that are much more likely to get picked for the phone screen.

thrtythreeforty 1y ago
The converse is actually a negative signal for me. If you list a GitHub profile on your resume, but that GitHub profile is a ghost town consisting exclusively of "test repo please ignore" and "freshman-year assignments I was required to fork from professor's repo," that tells me you don't have an above-average understanding of why you add something to your resume. If you don't have an impressive GitHub profile, that's fine. To your point - the absence of it is not a penalty, and the presence of a good one is a very positive signal. But the presence of one that turns out to be a dud is a negative.
- simonw 1y ago
  It partly depends on the level I'm hiring for. A junior candidate with a GitHub profile full of obvious tutorial projects still helps me skip putting them through FizzBuzz. A senior candidate with a ghost town could reflect poorly on them.
- marc_abonce 1y ago
  I wouldn't consider a GitHub full of "tutorial apps" as a red flag because it's very easy to underestimate the work behind a project when looking at it from an outsider's perspective. This is especially true for code that was voluntarily written in someone's free time. For example, each work day is made of 8 hours 5 days a week, but a "hobby day" is more like 3 hours every other weekend. So I would consider one or two features per year to be a pretty productive pace for a volunteer, free time project. Or, worst case scenario, I would just be neutral about it and ignore those projects.

bbkane 1y ago

I've been using vhs ( https://github.com/charmbracelet/vhs https://github.com/charmbracelet/vhs ) to script gif creation- really showcases CLI workflows if you're demoing multiple commands. Examples: https://github.com/bbkane https://github.com/bbkane

evnp 1y ago
This is great! Asciinema is well-made and a lot of fun, but it sadly doesn't show the recordings in motion right there in the markdown/README. Looks like vhs neatly solves that problem, appreciate the share.

padraigf 1y ago

Thanks, I'll try it. I have a few things knocking around.