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Github is my resume

pydanny.blogspot.com

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Re: Github is my resume

#21

Post by gav »

As somebody who doesn't use Github regularly, it's a horrible alternative to a resume. Looking at his profile[1] it's hard for me to figure out what he's actually done and it's a bigger time investment on my part. If somebody on my team forwarded me that link instead of a one page resume, I doubt I'd talk to him.

He has 58 public repos, but I can't see if he's had significant commits to them. Picking some commits at random from the activity doesn't help much either.

If you are going to restrict your job hunting to people who use GitHub and who contact you, it may be ideal, but why restrict your potential audience so dramatically?

[1] https://github.com/pydanny

Re: Github is my resume

#22

Post by plunchete »

That's is the idea behind Masterbranch (https://masterbranch.com). Masterbranch creates profiles based not only in information from GitHub but also other forges like BitBucket, GoogleCode, Sourceforge and almost any independent reachable repository out there (we support Hg, Git, SVN, and CVS).

Because not everyone has FOSS info we also have hooks to have information about private code without sharing the actual code so you don't have to worry about broken the IP, NDA, etc. And other stuff like StackOverflow reputation, etc. You can even give "free beers" to other developers as a thanks/kudos/good work

We are currently working on a new profile, less resume, more dashboard, you can take a look to it here https://masterbranch.com/drbrain/cool-new-stuff

So, the main idea is an identity (not just a resume) for the developers merging all their identities in one place and give them a tool (not only to find a new job) to stay connected to their peers, know what's hot on technology, discover interesting projects, etc.

Re: Github is my resume

#23

Post by rcfox »

gav wrote: post #21

As somebody who doesn't use Github regularly, it's a horrible alternative to a resume. Looking at his profile[1] it's hard for me to figure out what he's actually done and it's a bigger time investment on my part. If somebody on my team forwarded me that link instead of a one page resume, I doubt I'd talk to him. He has 58 public repos, but I can't see if he's had significant commits to them. Picking some commits at…

Agreed. A large portion of "his" repos are forked from other people's. You can't tell what his level of contribution to any of them is at a glance. Also, he's got an absurd number of files for a project called "Hello World".

Perhaps a better alternative is to keep using GitHub to host your code, but then use your resume to highlight specific projects that you want to show to hiring managers. If they're really interested in you, they might look at some of your other stuff.

Re: Github is my resume

#24

Post by bmj »

eggbrain wrote: post #3

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 my account showing off my code from 3 years ago containing only a script I didn't really care about? I don't mind a Github being used in conjunction with other resources (the projects I've…

I wonder how many employers actually search for (or would look at) GitHub repos? We are a bit biased here, right? Lots of folks working on bleeding edge projects leveraging lots of little open source projects--so, of course, we think "does candidate X have a GitHub profile?" But I reckon in many markets, many programmers might not even know GitHub exists.

Personally, I'd do some searching on a candidate, and would be rather happy to find code of theirs online, but I won't hold it against the candidate if the search doesn't find anything interesting.

Re: Github is my resume

#25

Post by kstenerud »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #10
reidmain wrote: post #9

From the comments it seems like there are three points of view: 1) Yeah this is dead on. Employers should only care about the code you've written. 2) No your always need a resume because your job history is more important. 3) GitHub complements your resume. I'd say that this is totally situational. It is like a cover letter. You position yourself for the jobs you want. A lot of startups would probably put more emphas…

What GitHub (and others) are for the developer is leverage. There's nothing worse than going into a job interview that you know you are (over-) qualified for and being given fizzbuzz because the person interviewing you doesn't know if you are a rock star or a fraud. Handing them your GitHub commit log lets you walk in on more equal terms. If they are interviewing you, they already think you're good enough for the pos…

The unfortunate truth is that there are fraudsters out there who will attempt to cheat or bullshit their way in. Fizzbuzz is so utterly trivial that you could bang it out in a few minutes. And yet it's amazing how well it weeds out non-programmers, no matter how much they bamboozled over the phone or built up a web of deceit online. You should treat fizzbuzz or the like as a secret handshake, where you write it and then everyone nods with a grin as a member of the fold is recognized, after which the real interview begins.

Re: Github is my resume

#26

Post by onemoreact »

tptacek wrote: post #14

A fair bit of discussion here, perhaps much of which misses the point: A resume has just two purposes: first, to help you get an interview, and second, to get you past an HR hurdle. It is not the job of your resume to go further than those objectives. In particular: it is not the job of your resume to establish a valuation for yourself. No one document can do that; in fact, no document can: you have to do it yourself…

I don't do the initial screening, but I do use resume's as an ethics test and guideline for interviews. If you list a lot of random crud on your resume and don't know much about it then you don't get in period. In the end every team has a different process, but I don't care what you have in GitHub and I do care what's on your resume so don't get to infatuated with what you hear random people say on HN or anywhere else.

Re: Github is my resume

#27

Post by smackfu »

bmj wrote: post #24
eggbrain wrote: post #3

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 my account showing off my code from 3 years ago containing only a script I didn't really care about? I don't mind a Github being used in conjunction with other resources (the projects I've…

I wonder how many employers actually search for (or would look at) GitHub repos? We are a bit biased here, right? Lots of folks working on bleeding edge projects leveraging lots of little open source projects--so, of course, we think "does candidate X have a GitHub profile?" But I reckon in many markets, many programmers might not even know GitHub exists. Personally, I'd do some searching on a candidate, and would be…

That's my feeling too, that this stuff is hot for the startup / dotcom hiring people which is a minority of the programming jobs out there, which are mainly intranet business stuff.

Re: Github is my resume

#28

Post by vonmoltke »

sjs wrote: post #18
apenwarr wrote: post #12

Apparently github is my de-facto resume, because I got emailed by a headhunter just the other day saying he found me on github, and my Java-related experience would be a real benefit to them. Wait, Java-related experience? I'm pretty sure there's not a single line of Java in my entire github repo. Oh wait, that's not true - there's my trivial benchmark script that shows Java is slower than python in some cases. :)

I've gotten two kinds of offers because of my Github account. The first is a genuine, honest-to-goodness message written by a human in HR that thought my skills were a good match for their company. The second arrived late last night and appears to be an automated message from Githire[1], though a real name was used in the From field. I think this is a new trend and while I don't mind it at all now it could easily get…

I just got an email from them today for a "Senior Java Developer" position. I can't figure out what the deal is, because I have a) very little public Java code anywhere (I have the roughout of a Swing GUI in my github repos) and b) no mention of Java on my resume at all.

Re: Github is my resume

#29

Post by anonymoushn »

abahgat wrote: post #2

I tend to agree with this point of view: whiteboard interviews fail to predict how you will write real code once you are hired, your actual code is definitely a better indicator. Asking candidates their github usernames is starting to seem a common trend, in my experience.

I have seen a lot of articles on HN that would suggest that someone somewhere is using github for hiring, but I have not heard of anyone actually doing it.

Re: Github is my resume

#30

Post by zwischenzug »

eggbrain wrote: post #8
daenz wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. T…

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.

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