91–100 of 152 posts
Judged by programming OUTSIDE of work time. Not having free time to do this is not an excuse.
gf/bf/wife/husband/son/daughter/parents/dog/cat/friends/life will have to understand that you need time for your craft.
I currently have time to do programming in my spare time, but I worry that in a few years my time won't be as free.
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It bugs you because you don't get get it, freely stereotype and readily tell people how to spend their free time. I work for a bigco that doesn't contribute to open source. I used to work for a bigco that was one of the biggest contributors to open source. I spend spare time working on an reasonably sized open source project, of which I was one of the founders, hosted on, yes, github. I have interesting (to me, atlea…
I agree with you that it is another facet. The point I was trying to make is that there is a pretty low barrier to entry to get yourself into that facet. An attitude I see online a lot is that "If I don't do it, it's not valuable" - though this goes hand-in-hand with "I do it, if you don't you are wrong". I am biased because I do have a github account and work on side projects for fun, but I think it is worthwhile to…
Others told you, so try to understand their viewpoint: you are projecting your own prejudices about time and open source. Maybe, if you look at the cold, hard numbers, you may agree that 90% of smart programmers don't have a github account. True or false? If true, then your claims need to be revisited.
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My resume is my resume. My personal code is closed-source, with the exception of a couple of bits for presentations and an archived project for which I am a maintainer. You could say that "well, that one archived project is your resume," but that would be foolish (not that you are saying that, but it does follow from all of this) because it has little to do with what I actually do. More than anything, though, I kind…
Is there a particular reason why your personal code is closed source.
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I don't want to turn this into a game of forum post logical proofs. I don't advocate "don't hire if no OSS". I work with smart people that get stuff done and don't have a Github account. That's fine, it's a personal choice how you use your time. What rubs me the wrong way is when people say "It's unfair to look at Github as the new resume because I don't have enough time to do open source". Like I said originally, I'…
People are very different. It takes all kinds. The kind of hacker you are, is not the only kind of hacker there is. There can be very bright, excellent engineers, who spend their entire off-duty time watching TV. They don't have a duty to contribute to open source software and choosing not to does not tell you anything about their skills as an engineer. I remember once a new coworker telling me -- on his first day, n…
So do yourself a favor and move to Github! How, exactly, would i be doing myself a favor with this? I'm not such a big fan of git and i avoid github on moral grounds[1]. Other code hosting services work great for me and i see no reason to switch both my hosting and my VCS. I don't disagree with the argument that your code should act as your resume, but it could have been worded a lot better. [1] I can't in good consc…
"Waah, they copied us!" Maybe. "PLAGIARISM!" Not so much.
I don't want to take the time to build it, so here's a silly programming project for an afternoon: Build a bot that can simulate an open source genius via a classic academic technique: Plagiarism. The algorithm: Use Github's API and/or Google to find some popular repos. Fork those repos into a new Github account named (e.g.) "Nicolai". For each repo, find some other forks of that repo. Grab some branch names and comm…
It's not only a coding project in its own right, but it's also a very clever form of lateral thinking that shows a certain cheekiness and savvy that can be appreciated by plenty of businesses out there.
The trick is that you have to make sure you're not hiring for any of their plagiarized projects. What if they plagiarized the bot itself?
Did you create some awesome project on GitHub (or on any other CVS for that matter)? Then you have something to show off.
But none of them in themselves will help you get hired. They will maybe help you get to the interview.
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Sorry but that doesn't make any sense (and I was a hiring manager for many years). When I want to hire an experienced developer, what matters is the experience they got at their previous employers, the large codebase they worked on there. None of that stuff will be on Github, that's just a fact of life.
Do you hire a developer based on their resume alone? Probably not. The article is saying that Github is the new resume, not that you should only hire people based on what they do on Github. I have no problem if you want me to demonstrate experience from a previous job, but it's not like that is some magic bullet to finding a good hire either. I could easily embellish my experience and you have no way to tell. But exp…
Also this would mean I have to use a particular tool for development (maybe I should be required to only use gcc for my C projects too). A particular tool on a particular site. I like Mercurial. The projects I like to contribute might use Google code. Guess I am going to have a hard time finding a job now.
I recently interviewed at a Fortune 100 company's new "Innovation" group. I pointed them to the various projects I have on Github as examples of my work. They reviewed it and liked what they saw. However, my interviewer told me "we've seen your code on Github. It's great, but just so you know, you won't be able to keep that up if you work here." I asked more about what he meant by this and he told me that the company…
"Companies: allow your employees to freely work on open-source and it will improve your recruiting." It will also make it harder/more costly for them to retain their top talent (since external groups will be able to identify them for poaching), so good luck getting many of them to buy into this.
I don't espouse the negativity in Fight Club, but the quote that I've adapted seems particularly relevant here.
"Facebook users 'are insecure, narcissistic and have low self-esteem'" http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1310230/Faceb...
I consider Github sort of the developer equivalent of Facebook. Let me clarify that. If you're posting stuff on Github just to impress recruiters and fellow engineers, then it is. If you're using it in a constructive way, less so or maybe not at all. The point I'm trying to make is that there are parallels between the two.
Look. It's good to provide recruiters (by recruiter I mean a real engineer here who is evaluating candidates) evidence that you're skilled. There are many ways to do that. One way would be to bring in code and discuss it. Another way would be to work through programming problems in the recruiter's presence. I'm not talking about "a-ha" brain teasers but real, actual programming. After all, that's what a programmer is (theoretically) being hired to do.
But please do not encourage an arms race where programmers fall over each other trying to see how much code they can post publicly, and how much work they can give away.
I'm highly skilled and my time is precious. I don't spend it looking in front of the (Github) mirror, and I actually charge money for it. Charity is a good thing, but you shouldn't do it to boost your ego and image. And further, if that's all you spend your time doing, I would wonder why you want to work in private industry where the purpose is to make money so we can be employed. You know, engineers at Apple might not have Github accounts, but they are employed and support their families. Apple's work also lifts tons of people out of poverty in China. How many people does your open source project feed?
You guys need to step off the ego train and direct your energy into stuff that actually matters. And you will be happier for it.