Ask HN: How important is a public GitHub repo for job applications in 2024?

Second, I suspect the lack of a LinkedIn profile is much more likely to impact your chances compared to a GitHub profile. The latter has never been a particularly strong signal for hiring managers for reasons described elsewhere in comments here. Missing a LinkedIn page makes you stand out - and not in a positive way. Between the "overemployed" crowd and AI-generated profiles, there's something to be said for having some kind of social proof that you are who you say you are. Whether that's right or wrong is beside the point, just part of modern reality.

That said, your best bet is to just apply more. Looking for a job can be a truly full-time job in itself these days.

"Having a personal blog is worthless!" For some, not for me.

"Having a LinkedIn profile is worthless!" For some, not for me.

"Having a portfolio website is worthless!" For some, not for me.

"Having a degree from anything but a top 10 university is worthless!" For some, not for me.

"Posting on is worthless!" For some, not for me.

"Going to network meetups is worthless!" For some, not for me.

"Posting on HackerNews who wants to be hired is worthless!" For some, not for me.

Because the world is made up of many voices, you will hear many opinions of what is useless, and what you should do. Much like the apocryphal wife and husband and their mule.

When I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs and indie game developers about their idea, frequently I hear that advertising or marketing is worthless, they built-it, made a singular post to their 12 followers on Twitter/Instragram/whatever, and nobody came, and then they whined about the lack of response on whatever sub-reddit they think is appropriate.

If you throw a small stone in to a large pond, the ripples it produces will hardly reach the shore, if at all.

If you have a big budget, or a sure-fire viral idea, you can go big all at once. Splash! And the ripples will most certainly reach the shore, and people will, for a time, watch them come in, until the ripples stop, and the people go find something else to watch.

But if you take a dump truck, and poor lots and lots of little stones in, continuously, at different spots in the pond, all those ripples will make interference patterns, and some of the those ripples will reach the near shore, where this crowd of people are standing, and some of the ripples will reach a different shore, where a different crowd of people are standing.

I build interesting and fun side projects. Lots of little pebbles. I put them on my github, I take photos, and write up notes, and talk about them at meetups and conferences when I run into people, and I post about my projects on a big pond called LinkedIn, and a few other smaller ponds, ponds where the people who make hiring decisions are standing on different shores.

And then, every once in a while, without even trying, someone reaches out and says "would you like to come and work with us on this interesting thing we're building?" and a few casual chats for an hour or two that don't involve any leetcoding or livecoding or whiteboardcoding, and if we get a good sense of each other, we might both say "yes." Why, they might even ask for a resume or a C.V. to keep HR happy, long after the decision to hire me has taken place.

So are all of those things that we could do to get hired worthless? Yes. And do they help in getting hired? Also, yes.

You know what I personally do find worthless? Applying for jobs through the normal channels with the rest of the madding crowd that all so desperately want to stand out with their cover letter and their resume and their leetcode studying.

I'm not saying my way works for everyone or anyone. It works for me. Some will loudly proclaim it's worthless. Others will complain that it sounds like a lot of work.

Well, you can apply to 300 jobs, and get 300 rejections, and then sweat bullets when interview time comes about whether your DS&A leetcode skills are up to par. Or you can have someone reach out to you for a chat, a coffee in a lobby, and an hour later you're shaking hands on a good offer.

There will be people in the comments who will say "Well I don't hire that way." And others will say "I would never hire without testing your DS&A!" And others will say "I never looked at your github/linkedin/whatever. There's no time! It's worthless!"

And to them I respond "That's okay, because I'd never work for you. These guys over here are happy to have me. Have interesting problems you see. And are paying more than you are willing too."

I mean, you're not wrong - it's not that hard - but it's also amazing how many people in our profession aren't particularly good at doing more than make small modifications in some giant monorepo at work.

And like, if you don't have the drive or desire to outside of work, that's fine! Maybe you've got other hobbies, or a family, or as much interest in practicing your work at home as an average dentist. So the lack of a Github repo full of fun side projects shouldn't be a negative signal. But I also know that I've worked with people in the past that I don't think actually could make A Thing from scratch without someone holding their hands the whole time.