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How to present a GitHub project for your resume (2016)

thehftguy.com

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Re: How to present a GitHub project for your resume (2016)

#2
"Nobody cares about your code"

That's a peculiar claim about people who hire employees to create code.

"It’s not the code that counts, it’s the product"

So is everyone only hiring programmers who write code which can be sloppy and full of technical debt and impossible maintain, as long as the product works okay for now?

Re: How to present a GitHub project for your resume (2016)

#3
post #2

"Nobody cares about your code" That's a peculiar claim about people who hire employees to create code. "It’s not the code that counts, it’s the product" So is everyone only hiring programmers who write code which can be sloppy and full of technical debt and impossible maintain, as long as the product works okay for now?

Yeah. Code is the product.

It's like saying, "we don't sell ingredients, we sell meals".

Re: How to present a GitHub project for your resume (2016)

#4
The first piece of advice doesn't make sense to me. You can easily tell from going to the root of my GitHub what projects I'm most proud of: https://github.com/misingnoglic

I will say I'm inclined to agree that probably no recruiters have ever actually looked at my GitHub for more than 10 seconds though.

Re: How to present a GitHub project for your resume (2016)

#5
post #2

"Nobody cares about your code" That's a peculiar claim about people who hire employees to create code. "It’s not the code that counts, it’s the product" So is everyone only hiring programmers who write code which can be sloppy and full of technical debt and impossible maintain, as long as the product works okay for now?

Here's a really simple project for this kind of stuff if anyone is stuck on ideas:

- Make a website that accepts some form values

- After submitted, send an email to someone

Congratulations, you now have an exciting SaaS solution built with love using modern web technologies that can be hosted on any cloud provider or on-prem infrastructure and scales extremely well for businesses and companies which can save them thousands of dollars and reduce printing and faxing overhead.

If you're having some trouble, try to get a 4 year CS degree and several internships.

Re: How to present a GitHub project for your resume (2016)

#6

The first piece of advice doesn't make sense to me. You can easily tell from going to the root of my GitHub what projects I'm most proud of: https://github.com/misingnoglic I will say I'm inclined to agree that probably no recruiters have ever actually looked at my GitHub for more than 10 seconds though.

I've looked through GitHub code before, but it's hard to weight it too much since not everyone can even have significant open source code in the first place.

That being said, a particularly impressive project or a history of contribution is a huge plus to me. It's a great way to add some credibility to your claims of technical interest. Everyone says they're in to big data or ML, but actually showing some (even throwaway) work in that area lets me know you are active in your interests.

Re: How to present a GitHub project for your resume (2016)

#7
I have a quite "complete" github ( https://github.com/franciscop/ ) and still totally agree with this article. Githubs profiles/repos are not for resumes. They are for many other reasons, but if that's your main reason it shows.

On the other hand some employers might find you straight from your github or some of the projects you have made. I was also contacted as one of the "top devs" (whatever that means) of CSS and JS in my country according to http://git-awards.com/.

Re: How to present a GitHub project for your resume (2016)

#8
post #5
post #2

"Nobody cares about your code" That's a peculiar claim about people who hire employees to create code. "It’s not the code that counts, it’s the product" So is everyone only hiring programmers who write code which can be sloppy and full of technical debt and impossible maintain, as long as the product works okay for now?

Here's a really simple project for this kind of stuff if anyone is stuck on ideas: - Make a website that accepts some form values - After submitted, send an email to someone Congratulations, you now have an exciting SaaS solution built with love using modern web technologies that can be hosted on any cloud provider or on-prem infrastructure and scales extremely well for businesses and companies which can save them th…

You jest, but it's clear you've not tried to make that product, as it is much harder than it sounds if you count "make it past their spam filter" as delivering email.

Re: How to present a GitHub project for your resume (2016)

#9
If you expect the people reviewing it to be developers:

1) Tell me how to run it locally (docker is a good idea, if relevant) and where the code's entry point is.

2) Don't use a framework. I don't want to spend time figuring out which of the 20+ code files here have actual code you wrote and which are auto-generated or boilerplate. I'd much rather see something simple but well-written using the language's standard library and a couple well-selected imports than a Twitter clone in Rails or Django or whatever. I certainly don't want a tiny little todo app in a big-ass framework. I won't get upset over it and write you off as a candidate or anything, but you're not gaining many points.

3) You want people to actually engage with what you wrote, spend time on it, and want to talk about it? Don't write a todo app or any of that crap at all. Write a simple game. Put "game" in the title so it shows up in the URL.

Re: How to present a GitHub project for your resume (2016)

#10
post #2

"Nobody cares about your code" That's a peculiar claim about people who hire employees to create code. "It’s not the code that counts, it’s the product" So is everyone only hiring programmers who write code which can be sloppy and full of technical debt and impossible maintain, as long as the product works okay for now?

Yeah. Code is the product. It's like saying, "we don't sell ingredients, we sell meals".

So not really, right? Code is just symbols on a screen.

It's the abstractions that count.

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