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Github is my resume
61–70 of 70 posts
Re: Github is my resume
#62One 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…
This is exactly why Github will not ever be the standard. It's fine to show off what you play around with in your spare time, but the very best and most productive workers actually won't have an extensive up-to-date Github repo. This is because they're been gainfully employed and have spent the vast majority of their coding time kicking ass at their real job. In short, while people with impressive Github contribution…
It's fine to show off what you play around with in your spare time, but the very best and most productive workers actually won't have an extensive up-to-date Github repo. This is because they're been gainfully employed and have spent the vast majority of their coding time kicking ass at their real job.
Coming from the Rails world, this isn't true. Through my job, I fix problems with Rails or plugins I encounter. This may only account for say two percent of my development time, but that is significant enough to have a trail of pull requests.
Re: Github is my resume
#63I agree with Danny here. In fact, part of the reason we built Work for Pie is to address this issue. I also agree with some of the other comments - Github certainly isn't the end all be all. But, we're all trending away from traditional education, and software developers are on the leading edge of this trend. There may be a fairly standard path for "finance guy," but great developers can (and often do) come from any…
I haven't found CS degrees to be very well correlated with being able to program, so I think this need applies even to people who got an education in the normal way.
> I haven't found CS degrees to be very well correlated with being able to program,
That's only true if you artificially restrict your population. It's like saying that music degrees aren't well correlated with being able to play an instrument or sing, because most people I meet at my local jazz joint (including customers) can play an instrument, though only a minority has a music degree.
Re: Github is my resume
#64As 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…
You raise an excellent point. My Github account doesn't clearly indicate the other projects I've worked on that the Python/Django community knows I lead. Such efforts as https://github.com/opencomparison/opencomparison, which powers http://djangopackages.com. I have admin rights there and in retrospect, perhaps foolishly push directly there.
When I'm asked to provide code examples, I link to these projects. But now, in retrospect, I should fork the things I commit regularly to and provide that to possible employers.
Re: Github is my resume
#65One 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…
This is exactly why Github will not ever be the standard. It's fine to show off what you play around with in your spare time, but the very best and most productive workers actually won't have an extensive up-to-date Github repo. This is because they're been gainfully employed and have spent the vast majority of their coding time kicking ass at their real job. In short, while people with impressive Github contribution…
> This is because they're been gainfully employed and have spent the vast majority of their coding time kicking ass at their real job.
I disagree. I've fixed and contributed to projects I've been using in my real job. In fact, I found the bug while I was working on the real job.
Re: Github is my resume
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is exactly why Github will not ever be the standard. It's fine to show off what you play around with in your spare time, but the very best and most productive workers actually won't have an extensive up-to-date Github repo. This is because they're been gainfully employed and have spent the vast majority of their coding time kicking ass at their real job. In short, while people with impressive Github contribution…
> This is because they're been gainfully employed and have spent the vast majority of their coding time kicking ass at their real job. I disagree. I've fixed and contributed to projects I've been using in my real job. In fact, I found the bug while I was working on the real job.
I'm not sure that's what he's saying; I for one find my open source contributions decrease when I'm doing work I find fulfilling during the hours of 9-5...
Re: Github is my resume
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I haven't found CS degrees to be very well correlated with being able to program, so I think this need applies even to people who got an education in the normal way.
> I haven't found CS degrees to be very well correlated with being able to program, That's only true if you artificially restrict your population. It's like saying that music degrees aren't well correlated with being able to play an instrument or sing, because most people I meet at my local jazz joint (including customers) can play an instrument, though only a minority has a music degree.
Right, what I mean is that they are not very well correlated among people who are applying to make software for my employer. I'm sure that a more uniform sampling would produce a very high correlation in favor of people with CS degrees, but it would also be a lot less like anyone's hiring process.
Re: Github is my resume
#68One 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…
Don't worry about it... at all.
Most of us work in jobs where we don't share our code with the public. Most of us work in jobs which take up all of our time, and we try to have a life away from the computer when we're not at work. That's what makes us interesting people.
Work is a social environment. If all you do all day is code at work, then come home and code all night, you're not going to be a very interesting person. Go see movies, read books, meet with others, meet a girl/boy, learn to cook, develop a hobby... etc.
If you have to show code in an interview, just take some of your proprietary code which shows that you know how to program, remove/obscure all business-specific information (inline docs, comments, variable names), and use that. Of course, don't select the one algorithm that makes your current company special, rather pick some typical/mundane code that shows what you can do.
The bottom line is that this is the situation that most people are in, and we understand this situation when we're interviewing you for our company. Don't sweat it.
Re: Github is my resume
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
To verify that they can bang out code when they need to, not just when they're in the right frame of mind to create code samples. Also, ours is domain specific and measures multiple things about the candidate (but the primary one is just that they can produce sane code). In this case, we're talking about FizzBuzz. The point of FizzBuzz is that it's a test that can be passed by literally anyone with an elementary abil…
I'm obviously against any quizzes in an interview; it puts the interviewer and the interviewee on unequal footing, but that's not the point in my comment. I'm not optimizing for fizzbuzz here. I'm optimizing for "I'm not some guy off the street here, here's some proof". I'm optimizing for "let's skip past the bullshit".
You're assuming that the person interviewing trusts your absolutely in your statement that that code is yours.
They can't assume that. It would be irresponsible of them to just assume that that is proof of your abilities. Whilst fizzbuzz doesn't prove anything either, if you fail it then they know that you are lying. It's better than just blindly accepting it.
Re: Github is my resume
#70Summarizing the main points I've picked out of these comments. Anything I'm missing?
A) Github does not cover a lot work that is done because developers are prohibited by NDAs (for their day job) and/or don't have time/inclination to contribute to open source; furthermore OSS is less hot outside of silicon valley
B)Github is an important piece of an overall portfolio; for most employers it is not stand-alone in screening a candidate
C) A code portfolio (github or otherwise) is a complement to the information found in a resume
D) Resume should be used to highlight the most significant code contributions (in github or otherwise)
E)Control is important - developers should be able to hide some projects in order to control the image they want to project; it is important to position oneself for the specific jobs one is targeting
F)For hiring, you need a summary (that's easily printable) of everything that you bring to the table
G) For employers, interviewing is a huge time-sink; there's huge value in only bringing the most relevant people into an interview