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Ask HN: Is fake GitHub profile data a thing?

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Ask HN: Is fake GitHub profile data a thing?

#1

Post by synu »

I'm hiring for some technical positions, and noticed that I'm getting a lot of resumes that link to a GitHub profile with a common set of characteristics:

- A long README.md with lots of awards/stats images.

- Lots of repositories with single commits, no real explanations in the READMEs. Sometimes these are non-fork copies of more popular projects, which seems even more suspicious.

- Most of the repos have five to ten stars each, but if you open them up they are basically the same people over and over starring all the repos.

I don't want to share links to example profiles because these may be real people, and maybe there's some legitimate scenario where profiles look like this that I'm just not thinking of? It seems though like it's just pumping fake data to drive the stats in the readme.

The resumes that come along with the profiles seem normal enough, so I wanted to ask here if it's something that others are seeing as well? And if it's a red flag, as I assume at this point? I'm asking because I don't want to write people off if there's something benign happening here that I am just not familiar with.

Re: Ask HN: Is fake GitHub profile data a thing?

#2

Post by EnKopVand »

Of course “fake” GitHub accounts are a thing. Just like people pump up their resumes in general. What you’re describing may simply be people who heard that having a GitHub profile with some stuff on it was a good idea. So they uploaded a bunch of projects and got their friends to “like” them. At least I’d personally like to think that people who are actively out to “cheat” on their GitHub repos genuinely put a little more effort into it than that.

I’m not sure if it constitutes as a red flag, but you can always take a look to see if the repo “starring” goes both ways, or/and ask about it.

Re: Ask HN: Is fake GitHub profile data a thing?

#4

Post by asojfdowgh »

- fad chasing

- making plans without executing them, using forks as upvote button

- when you make or fork a repo, it shows to ur followers, hence same people each time

and yeah, they do things to make number go up, consider it "metagaming" as opposed to like, bad stuff. Anyone is allowed to play github how they want!

as always, check their original code, la commits done by their accnt, ignoring anything silly (small, low effort commits) as punishing someone for being silly, is a bit silly, look at their PRs, look at their projects they have efforted on, etc, if there are none, then just treat it like they had no github.

Re: Ask HN: Is fake GitHub profile data a thing?

#5

Post by kregasaurusrex »

I'd say you could accomplish the same goal by making an auto-commit script to make your contribution history green (which can be done retroactively as well!) and get recruiters that are none the wiser to see what a stellar shipper you are. Heck, I can even name someone who was eventually hired at Github who did this and said it led to more conversations during interviews about how exactly it was done.

Re: Ask HN: Is fake GitHub profile data a thing?

#6

Post by ionwake »

I wanted to moan about how the best coders have GitHub repos but keep most of them or atleast the best private so they can perhaps build a side business out of them , thus making them less likely to get selected as a solid spare time coder.

I’m kind of retired now so I’m now less perturbed by it and more empathic towards business owners who must find it nearly impossible to sort the wheat from the chaff especially if the interviewee like me refused to do technical tests.

At the end of the day I realise now I was competing against dishonest candidates and I never stood a good chance I’m lucky I’m sought after now but that’s only because of my experience.

Re: Ask HN: Is fake GitHub profile data a thing?

#7

Post by d9000 »

Because many recruiters use automated tools to filter candidates. These tools use your github profile statistics to see how "active" you have been, regardless of the content of your projects. You would think it makes sense to build actual projects, but who has time on projects when they are working 8am to 6pm plus 2 hour commute every day? This is why people fake their github profiles to pass recruiters.

Re: Ask HN: Is fake GitHub profile data a thing?

#8

Post by zaphirplane »

EnKopVand wrote: post #2

Of course “fake” GitHub accounts are a thing. Just like people pump up their resumes in general. What you’re describing may simply be people who heard that having a GitHub profile with some stuff on it was a good idea. So they uploaded a bunch of projects and got their friends to “like” them. At least I’d personally like to think that people who are actively out to “cheat” on their GitHub repos genuinely put a little…

I would be looking out during the interview if that person takes credit but doesn’t do the work, talks a good game but no delivery, blames others when their work is examined closely and finally not doing their work to a high level when it’s not getting closely validated

Maybe it’s some kind of arms race against companies expecting massive side projects but there is an element of if I can get away with it more $$ to me

Re: Ask HN: Is fake GitHub profile data a thing?

#9

Post by ergl »

> Most of the repos have five to ten stars each, but if you open them up they are basically the same people over and over starring all the repos.

As a datapoint, this happens in a few of my repos. There's really nothing interesting in some of them (homework assignments from when I was in college), but there are a couple of profiles who star almost all my repos. I don't know them in real life, don't know where they came from.

Re: Ask HN: Is fake GitHub profile data a thing?

#10

Post by synu »

ergl wrote: post #9

> Most of the repos have five to ten stars each, but if you open them up they are basically the same people over and over starring all the repos. As a datapoint, this happens in a few of my repos. There's really nothing interesting in some of them (homework assignments from when I was in college), but there are a couple of profiles who star almost all my repos. I don't know them in real life, don't know where they ca…

Yeah, interesting. I was wondering if something like that could be happening.
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