Gitguy: "I used EC2, Blazboo and Chingbang to create an HA job queue that will never fail! It uses counting Bloom filters and I wrote it in Brainfuck."
Me: "What do you use it for?"
Gitguy: "Sending password reset emails."
These Rube Goldberg wannabes are generally more trouble than they're worth. You end up with a system that's a technological pastiche. The drawback is apparent when you try to hire new teammates. It turns out you can't find someone who knows the 12 esoteric packages your business is running on.
That, to me, is 100x more important than "how many zeros are in 100 factorial"
real engineers know that most good code isn't on github and never will be
Irrelevant. Fact is, having code out there makes it easier for prospective employers to get a feel for you, there's no way around that. No one said it had to be the best code or all the code.
Now, if you are working your ass off on proprietary code and write absolutely no code outside of your work, then you won't have it. That's understandable, but doesn't change the fact that it makes it harder for someone to figure out what you can do.