> One of the most frustrating things for me, I feel, is that hardly any of the code I have written is on Github for various reasons (NDA, proprietary code, etc). So when an employer asks me for my Github, what do I do? Do I send him the my account showing off my code from 3 years ago containing only a script I didn't really care about?
The not-so-easy answer is: find time to contribute to the open source community. This is difficult if your time is already spent though.
Or don't, and just be really really good with marketable technologies. The opposite of your advice also holds: you can spend a whole lot of time doing excellent open source and still end up with a crappy job.
This is difficult if your time is already spent though.
Exactly. In my spare time I program, but many times it's on client projects that are on top of the 40 hours I work at my job, both of which probably wouldn't want me to post my code on Github. I have a passion for programming, but I'd rather a potential employer focus on what I've done -- just because my Github is empty doesn't mean my portfolio is as well.
That goes for me too. In fact, you could flip the advice: if you're such a great and experienced programmer looking for work, why have you spent so much time being paid well to do commercial work? Why have you not spent your time working for your employer and resting outside of work?
When I've spoken to (good) recruiters, they've downplayed the whole github/blog thing. We might use that (they say), but it will depend very much on the job we're going for. Usually once I talk to a techie for a while they get a pretty good idea of what I'm about technically (and vice versa). If they're not a techie, then github/blog will be of only limited use.
So you're saying that he would be a better prospective employee if he spent less time working on his primary job and instead spent more time writing other code? That seems totally counterintuitive to me.
He asked what to do if an employer asks for his Github and he has nothing current on it. I answered with "fill it with your open source contributions." You're free to draw whatever conclusions you want from that.
The not-so-easy answer is: find time to contribute to the open source community. This is difficult if your time is already spent though.