
Resumes are dangerous - maccman
http://blog.alexmaccaw.com/resume-are-dangerous
======
ENOTTY
I'm not a big fan of this development. There's a lot of software developers
out there who work on projects for their employers that can't be open sourced.
It also places those who lack free time to hack on code in their off hours
(perhaps due to kids) at a disadvantage.

For students, it is not clear that the code they generate is their property so
posting it on github is legally dangerous. I've also had professors say
posting code is cheating.

~~~
pnathan
Speaking as someone involved in a hiring team for a developer, I am happy to
discard people who are not demonstrating ability if I have other people who
are. I am looking for every possible signal that differentiates candidates.
Don't shoot yourself in the foot by not differentiating yourself.

Github demonstrates knowledge of (1) current trends in open source, (2) using
source control, and (3) a project that can be looked over.

(Substitute github with bitbucket or whatever, I don't care that much).

With respect to engineers who are under restrictive IP contracts, all I can
say is I'm sorry. You are likely to be shown up by others who demonstrate
skills in ways you are unable (by contract) to. Do your best to leave and find
a place where you can demonstrate your awesome.

~~~
jebblue
>>Do your best to leave and find a place where you can demonstrate your
awesome.

Not your, you're, it's a contraction, knowing the distinction shows you're
skills are awesome.

~~~
jbri
I am unsure if you're being ironic, but the grandparent did use "your"
correctly - _if_ you take "awesome" as a thing someone possesses rather than
as an adjective.

~~~
jebblue
Possessing an awesome would be ironic because it would be so awesome.

------
jenius
While I think Alex is super smart and usually thoroughly enjoy his writing, I
strongly disagree with this post for one reason - the way he looks to hire
completely disregards learning, adaptation, and growth in a potential hire,
and this is _super_ important.

This is certainly not the first time I've encountered this strategy, in fact
it seems to be the dominant mindset among successful companies - 'We are only
going to hire people who are super good at what they do already. In fact, I
want them to be better than me. We only want the best engineers out there,
because we are one of the best companies out there, so we look extra carefully
at your credentials and if they are not on par with industry leaders, you're
out.' Right?

Wrong. If you invest in some stock for a company that is already doing well,
there's a decent chance of you making money off it, sure. There's also a
decent chance that you won't. It's a pretty standard and usually safe
investment. Where the real money comes from is when you do research and find a
company that's not already successful, but that you see a lot of promise in.
This is (obviously) the entire driving force behind startups and venture
capital, and the strategy behind the success of wildly successful investors.

You are winning when you see passion for learning and potential for growth in
a candidate and pick them up based on that. This way you don't have to pay out
as much as you would for someone that already is well recognized within the
industry, and you get a lot more loyalty, and a chance to build this employee
and support them along their path to greatness. In the end, if you can find
these kinds of people and grab them earlier on, you profit far more than other
companies that fight over the few current industry leaders and burn through
money and effort to keep them on board.

------
jonbischke
We're moving into a world in which people will increasingly be judged by their
work product online (e.g., Github commits, Quora answers, etc.) versus what
they say about themselves (e.g., their resume or LinkedIn profile). This
change won't be overnight and won't be complete of course but over time could
create a virtuous cycle where the importance of having a better "living
resume" (your online work/portfolio) will drive increased activity for all of
those sites which will in turn make those living resumes more robust.

~~~
vbtemp
Eh.

I have a measely 150 rep on stackoverflow, have a long-dormant github account,
and I don't know what Quora is. But I've worked on some interesting R&D
projects over the years, and have written some fundamental code that will stay
at my organization (an R&D lab) for a long time. In short, I think I'm a
valuable person that is in no way reflected in my github/stackexchange
accounts.

~~~
wpietri
In which case, I'd encourage you to find some other way to demonstrate that
value. E.g., blogging about your work. Beefing up your LinkedIn resume with
testimonies from fellow engineers. Making an interesting toy project that you
can publish.

If you want people to see your value, you'll have to find a way to show it to
them.

~~~
vbtemp
Heh - probably. But I'm far too self-conscious to have a real blog for people
to read, especially considering how harshly I judge other people based on
their blogs... and think how it makes them look like arrogant pricks who I'd
never want to work for.

------
efa
Next article will be titled "GitHub is dangerous". Just like in a resume, a
candidate can easily embellish. Of course you can't trust what someone claims
to know. You must verify it.

------
Kallikrates
I don't think I would enjoy working for someone I was better than. I approach
work as a learning experience. I usually pick to work for people I can learn
from.

~~~
vbtemp
Heh -- Good way to flip it around.

------
ArtB
Is it that disadvantageous to prefer BitBucket? When people say they check
GitHub is that short for checking for publically available source code, or is
Git Hub the one-stop-shop for coding credability?

~~~
csomar
I don't think BitBucket is a disadvantage. It also shouldn't bother if you
link to your own hosted public repository when it's easily browsable and
readable.

~~~
tomjen3
The problem with that is that my code tends to start out a mess -- get the
shit done. And then it will be refactored into something that is prettish.

~~~
0xDECAFFEE
You're not testing enough. TDD and BDD coupled with making sure you follow
Agile methods even with "hello world" sample code will prevent this. I would
explain more but I am just a follower, A.K.A. a lemming. Got to go fork
another RoR project on github. BRB. /s

------
Arelius
Regarding github, I have a lot of code on github, I store most of my code
that's personal there. As you would imagine, most of it's crappy, or
incomplete.

There are however multiple projects that I think deserve priority when looking
through my github, but as far as I can tell, there is no way for me to make it
clear what those are.

Additionally, if I fork a project, it's likely just so that I can add a fix
and issue a pull request, that's additionally something I don't think people
need to see.

I worry that someone going through my GitHub profile will see all of my old,
incomplete work, and leave before they get to my better projects, any thoughts
on how to resolve this.

As an example, here is a link to my GitHub: <https://github.com/Arelius>

~~~
286c8cb04bda
_> There are however multiple projects that I think deserve priority when
looking through my github, but as far as I can tell, there is no way for me to
make it clear what those are._

You should use your user page[1] to draw attention to the things you think are
most important.

 _> Additionally, if I fork a project, it's likely just so that I can add a
fix and issue a pull request, that's additionally something I don't think
people need to see._

I disagree. Finding your way around a foreign code base enough to make the
changes you need is an essential skill for a developer. Repositories you've
forked and made pull requests for are a great way to demonstrate that.

[1]: <http://help.github.com/pages/>

~~~
Arelius
> I disagree. Finding your way around a foreign code base enough to make the
> changes you need is an essential skill for a developer.

Sure, but a whole lot of the forks are like one line changes, they sit there
taking up an entire repo, and aren't particularly useful.

------
prezjordan
Off-topic. How do the "kudos" work? Does it use my IP? Cookies? I tried on
different devices on the same network and the vote didn't sync. I cleared my
cache and it was still there.

------
matthewrudy
I think it depends on the job market you're in. In the US and Europe an open-
source profile is expected, but over here in Hong Kong its fairly uncommon.
The good ones have either flown away to the US, or already been snatched up.

But, as Alex says, once we've sifted through CVs to find the best and invited
them to interview, the paper doesn't matter anymore. Human interaction, pair
programming, whatever, it's all more important than what's written on a piece
of paper.

------
vanessar
In my company (masterbranch.com) we target this problem. We help developers to
showcase what they really know by tracking their code an presenting it in a
nice way. We also offer companies reliable information about the candidates,
that they can review before interviewing them.

------
gawker
It would be interesting to see how these ideas apply to other non-technical
industries/professions.

------
georgieporgie
_Often, when I'm reading a resume I'm thinking: “This guy is great, look at
all this experience. He clearly knows Ruby and JavaScript like the back of his
hand, and this interview is just going to be a formality”_

For what it's worth from the other side, I've been repeatedly amazed at how
much interviewers have managed to read into or project onto my resume. And I'm
not talking about recruiters, for whom a single keyword instance qualifies you
as an "excellent match!" but actual working engineers and engineering
managers.

