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Personal Branding as a Developer: Your GitHub Profile Matters More Than You Think
How to set up your GitHub profile so that you stand out
Disclaimer: This is a highly opinionated piece backed up by my and other people's personal experience sourcing programmer talent.
I've conducted hundreds of interviews over a span of 12 months. I've browsed and evaluated hundreds of potential candidate resumes over 5 years — all while actively leading a team of front and backend developers.
So, I think it's fair to say, I've seen quite a lot of talent acquisition action. This probably makes me qualified to state some of the experiences which I am about to present on why your GitHub profile matters.
As many millennials and Gen Z are getting to understand, finding a job isn't the most straightforward feat to accomplish. We may feel as though we're simply pawns in an older generation's game of chess, but what we must learn is that it's truly about how you play the game by marketing yourself.
Why do we do the things we do as programmers? Because we're builders and creators.
We do what we do because we want to change the world.
We do what we do because we are selfless.
We do what we do for personal gain.
We do what we do because we love the craft.
To achieve any of your goals as a programmer, we need to find ways to be visible to the people that need our services. There is no doubt that making a living is hard so much more now that we have Covid-19 lurking over our shoulders.
It's essential to start learning in order to create a strategic plan for yourself. Being in control of your fate will ultimately help you navigate the uncharted territories you'll face when upskilling and showcasing your talent as a software developer.
Designers and artists use a portfolio to showcase past work and their creative side to sell themselves. Similarly, places like topcoder.com, freelance website profiles with star ratings, and GitHub profiles are portfolios for programmers…
