How to optimize your GitHub for job interviews

The only people I've even heard of looking at GitHub for job interviews was to judge new graduates. And that was only because it would have the only non-course work they could judge.

Don't give one, won't be an issue (for places where you likely want to work)

Easy optimization! :p

More on point, some of the tips sound good - eg: pin the things you're proud of.

Less good: activity squares.

If an applicant gives me a github thinking these squares (alone) will save them -- they won't.

A bunch of trash one-line delete/add commits give up the game. I want to see proper drafts, notes, and meaningful change.

One big meaningful change that takes six months to achieve is a better demonstration than idle busywork every day over the same span.

Github is the most useless metric to get interviews. Would rather just reach out for referrals. I don't think Github would apply for experienced professionals unless they contributed something significant to open source.

Perhaps this is an American thing. I've never had someone look at or care about my (inactive) github account. It's not even on my resume, though if it was active I might put it on there.

Or, maybe I'm just doing it wrong.

It certainly is not a main criteria when hiring people but I always check the GitHub / Gitlab / etc. profile if applicants include it in their resume. Usually it gives a good indication about how the person is organized and how they communicate problems, especially if there are some recent projects.

My GitHub was full of activity when I worked at a place where we used GitHub. Since then it's been pretty dead, and that's okay because noone gives a shit.