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Is a resume relevant in the age of online courses and open source projects?

arstechnica.com

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Re: Is a resume relevant in the age of online courses and open source projects?

#11

Post by droithomme »

These arguments that the only worthy developers have tons of public facing open source projects are tiresome.

Probably less than 1% of developers have GitHub repos and there's no correlation between skill level and having a GitHub repo.

If you have extensive and current open source contributions, for most people it means you're unemployed, or you're violating your employer's contract terms.

Evaluating a GitHub repo for a summary of skills in not a trivial task, as scanning a resume is.

When all of your work is online, it suggests you are not spending much time contributing value to whoever is employing you.

Companies that can't find developers often have bizarre and useless criteria such as "must have GitHub repository" or "must have LinkedIn" or "must have FaceBook", none of which is correlated with ability.

We hire lots of capable people without GitHub repositories.

Re: Is a resume relevant in the age of online courses and open source projects?

#13

Post by coliveira »

Employers will not retire resumes because they know better than anyone else that online activity is classified as marketing rather than individual achievement. If you generate this kind of online activity, good for you, it makes it easier to find a job or to sell a product. It may even replace a traditional job. But having a degree from a top university, having a position in a well know company, receiving a prize recognized in the industry, these are things that really count as achievement. Unless you're talking about internet marketing positions, these are the things that really matter to an employer.

Re: Is a resume relevant in the age of online courses and open source projects?

#15

Post by coliveira »

droithomme wrote: post #11

These arguments that the only worthy developers have tons of public facing open source projects are tiresome. Probably less than 1% of developers have GitHub repos and there's no correlation between skill level and having a GitHub repo. If you have extensive and current open source contributions, for most people it means you're unemployed, or you're violating your employer's contract terms. Evaluating a GitHub repo f…

Great point, if you spend all your time contributing to online repositories you are probably not doing anything else. But the people promoting this kind of ideas are exactly the ones creating services like github, so I am not surprised that you see these messages over and over at HN.

Re: Is a resume relevant in the age of online courses and open source projects?

#17

Post by niggler »

kanzure wrote: post #10
danielweber wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, "show me the github" is one of the worst trends for software developers' careers. I'll always ask for live code from people at interviews, if only to filter out the total posers.

> Yes, "show me the github" is one of the worst trends for software developers' careers. On the other hand, there are benefits to posting code online that they can review. Instead of spending hours writing code for each company that you're interviewing with, you can just write code that you're actually interested in and throw it online. Say you're talking with 20 companies. Each of those 20 interviews have an associa…

"... there are benefits to posting code online that they can review..."

In most domains, code is proprietary. Few ask for code samples because unscrupulous interviewees could reveal proprietary code, potentially opening the company to legal liabilities.

I make it a point not to read code that interviewees supply because I don't want to be sued by XYZ company because of code theft. In my industry, it has happened many times. Google "Sergey Aleynikov" and "Misha Malyshev" for an example of what can happen.

Re: Is a resume relevant in the age of online courses and open source projects?

#18

Post by danielweber »

kanzure wrote: post #10
danielweber wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, "show me the github" is one of the worst trends for software developers' careers. I'll always ask for live code from people at interviews, if only to filter out the total posers.

> Yes, "show me the github" is one of the worst trends for software developers' careers. On the other hand, there are benefits to posting code online that they can review. Instead of spending hours writing code for each company that you're interviewing with, you can just write code that you're actually interested in and throw it online. Say you're talking with 20 companies. Each of those 20 interviews have an associa…

Some people are completely useless. Remember, there are people out there who can't write Fizz Buzz yet still apply for jobs. They can easily fake a GitHub.

Someone who won't write code upon request is an instant no-hire.

Re: Is a resume relevant in the age of online courses and open source projects?

#19

Post by tluyben2 »

As someone who screens a lot of resumes; it's a good short overview and it's relevant. Github/open source projects/online qualifications don't show all there is to experience. Sure if someone started a bunch of projects to try to right the wrongs in the software world then this is a good sign. But if that person doesn't have or believes he/she doesn't need a resume then that's not a good sign. A resume is often a first line of defense; there will be a stack of them and those are screened pretty quickly at most companies. Something needs to attract enough attention to even check out your github and online qualifications. Your github account right there in your list mobile/email/skype/github is a pre, even if it's empty though :)

Re: Is a resume relevant in the age of online courses and open source projects?

#20

Post by dfc »

"The problem is that I have no idea how to tell employers that those (SO, GH, etc) are the places to look if they want an accurate description of what I can do."

So you are looking for a concise and centralized resource for listing your qualifications for a job. And you are asking if a resume is still relevant? It seems like the way to tell employers about your github, SO, udacity, etc, profiles is to list them on your resume.

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