Why GitHub is not your CV (2013)

blog.jcoglan.com

9 points·betolink··4 comments

"So really, your GitHub profile displays two things: how 'influential’ you are, and how easily you can be coerced into constantly working. It’s honestly about as relevant to a decent hiring decision as your Klout score."

...

"...Employers love to talk about passion. You must be passionate about problem-solving, or testing, or agile methodologies, or whatever this week’s 9-factor NoData cargo cult is. We don’t want to work with anyone who’s not passionate.

Now, I don’t actually know what people mean exactly by 'passion’, so I asked around, and the gist seems to be that it means you have an enthusiasm for your work that extends beyond your working hours. That you don’t switch off. That you can’t stop thinking about work because you’re just so gosh-darned pumped about it. In other words, that you will put in unpaid overtime on demand and without question, because your job is your primary source of emotional fulfilment."

Couldn't agree more.

"... 'passion’ ... means you have an enthusiasm for your work that extends beyond your working hours"

For me passion is when you are up-to-date with the trends and strive to (re-)factor your code to be better.

Unpaid overtime is most definitely a NO though, but the pay doesn't have to be immediate.

When people say "passion" I mentally convert it to "pride in your work".

This is opposed to the "it passes all the unit tests, I'm outta here" approach.

To be fair, "it passes all the unit tests, I'm outta here" is already a very good baseline.

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