

Ask HN: Github as resume, what does it really mean? - freedrull

It is so often said "your github account can be a great resume", but what does that really mean? What will a potentional employer specifically look at on your github account? Will they glance at the most recent project you committed to and assume this reflects the majority of your work? What if you have forks of projects that you have not actually committed any pull requests to at all?<p>If you were an employer, what would you look at on a github account?
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cheald
As someone who has done plenty of candidate screenings, an active Github
account is a big plus. I get to see how you interact with others, I get to see
your code style, how you approach version control, how you deal with bug
reports and feedback, and I can get a sense of your programming prowess in a
context that isn't cooked up for some interview.

Accounts that are just vimfiles and the skeleton of a never-again-touched
project are boring. Forked repos are neat, because they show what you're
interested in and what you've been exposed to. Forked repos that you've
contributed to are even better. Your own projects that others have filed
issues and pull requests on is the motherlode; that tells me a ton about how
you do the job I'm hiring for.

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rbsn
Thanks. This is actually a really nice insight to see how employers may read
someone's GitHub profile.

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zalew
It's a programmers' version of "a picture is worth a thousand words".

I don't like putting an equal sign between opensource and github, but that's
another story.

 _> If you were an employer, what would you look at on a github account?_

Examples of actual working code, obviously.

If there is some proof of collaboration with other programmers on solving
problems together (not only sering as your code dump), it'd be a bonus.

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codegeek
I am a relatively new Git and Github user. I am just an average
gitter/githubber but when I look at my own public github profile, it makes me
realize the following:

1\. It tells me that I can use Git/Github (even if not advanced). Probably not
a big deal but still.

2\. By looking at the projects that I have either forked or initiated on my
own, it tells you what kind of things I might be interested in building. Of
course, there could be many other things that are not listed there but still
gives you an idea. For example, forking Git itself vs. forking jquery. May be
I am more of a backend engineer vs. frontend engineer. May be I am into
opensource projects or just like to write my own utilities. All these things
can tell you a lot about me.

3\. You can immediately see what programming languages I am using. For
example, my github is primarily about python (duh!!) and I wrote one simple
project to convert financial statements (QFX format etc.) into csv using
python. Again, I know thats child's play for the pros but hey, I learnt python
doing that.

4\. You can also learn if I lean towards any specific
frameworks/tech/libraries etc. For example, I am into Flask framework for web
dev.

5\. How I document things. E.g.README.md etc. This is useful as well to
understand if I can communicate what I am building with others. Also shows how
I collaborate with other teams/project members.

Hope this helps.

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Peroni
Github profiles (moreso if they are regularly maintained) are an incredibly
useful preview for us when we screen CV's.

For what it's worth, we've (Hacker Jobs UK) interviewed a few CTO's & Tech
Directors over the last year or so and asked them all the same questions
including _How much value do you place in a Developers personal projects such
as github & demo sites when they apply for a job with your company?_.

If you got to our blog and search for 'Hacker Jobs Meets" you'll find the
relevant posts. <http://www.hackerjobs.co.uk/blog>

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freedrull
Wow, I think the new profiles on github are a definite improvement for this
kind of situation. :D

