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While I agree that having a github is great for a number of reasons, I do not think it's a Resume/CV "replacement" when looking for "any" software job.

> A cv is useless for conveying who you are and what value you bring relative to all the other thousands of people out there. A paper is a paper is a paper.

True. Therefore if you're looking at integrating a Startup, it is great because educated developers might have the time to meticulously review every application. But when you're looking for a job, any job, especially in a more established company it doesn't work the same way.

Of course, if your github projects are "famous", say you created Redis (the 1% case), then it can act as a CV replacement. A replacement NOT because someone will dig into the actual code, but rather because they'll know you created this known thing called Redis (or they'll read about it on Wikipedia and realize it's a big deal)... so it's in a way your CV. But if your github only has random projects (which is the 99% case), it's actually quite hard and time consuming to jump into the code to evaluate an applicant's skill.

To better explain my point that a resume/CV actually makes the difference, let's look at it the other way around. Imagine you are a recruiter, you have 100 applicants, and you need to filter the list because you can't interview all 100 of them. Are you going to look into at everyone's repo?! No. Instead you will give a quick look at the CV to identify 'potentially' good candidates. Having a link to your github on the CV is a big plus at this point (independently of what it has), because it's different from most of the other ones (aka: you're special, more passionate about technology). Once the filtering is done, only then will you usually have the occasion to be heard through an interview. And it's at this point that you actually need to show you're real value.

Now I do agree that this system is flawed, but it's the game. If you want to maximize your chances, which you most likely do considering you have no options, you should play the game and get a solid cv/resume. Having said that, if you lack experience or content for your CV, personal projects (on github) are a good filler ;)

Good points all around. To respond to your main points:

"When looking for a job, any job..." Ideally we should find the job that we are most motivated to do our best work at. It's a win for both parties. So I would try to avoid "finding any job" if it all possible. Granted it's easier said than done but that's the whole point. You want a place that you can grow at and that you don't dread going to work everyday. I think that's super important for a healthy life. So we should definitely aspire to be picky where we do our work. Also specifically to the current tech industry ; we can be picky. There is a ton of money in a ton of different kinds of companies in tech right now. Take advantage of it.

Secondly, regarding the concept of having a GitHub profile. I agree, the simple fact of a GitHub profile existing is pretty meaningless. I do agree that most profiles have bash profiles, incomplete projects, and a ton of forks. Yup that is meaningless. I should state that when we talk about "having a GitHub profile" I necessarily mean having completed projects that you've created, from start to finish, and that actually run in the wild. A GitHub profile is simply the most relevant way to show of these kinds of projects. Sure you can link to the website your code runs on but I'd argue it's still better that you also Open Source the code so everyone can see your design decisions. You're right in that people aren't going to take the time to dig through your code, but what if the readme listed major stack components, and majore design decisions? Isn't that better than linking to a consumer-facing splashpage?

The key here as with anything, is that you market it correctly. A GitHub profile can be used to more effectively market skills and knowledge that a tech employer would be interested in.

I still contend that its actually better to not use a resume to get a job. This forces you to find some other way to make an impression with the company you are interested in. Granted you need to zone in on companies you are interested in and you can't apply the "shotgun" approach like you can with a resume ....

but isn't that the point!?

^^ Don't take this advice. For every startup that doesn't care about resumes there are 20 or 30 just regular companies that need someone to write line-of-business apps and their HR department -- the people who will be your first contact -- do care about them. What they don't give a shit about is your github commit log. Now once you make it past HR and are speaking to actually coders that you might be working with, having code samples is excellent. But if you need a job, you need a resume.

To each his own I guess.

I disagree with the premise of "the resume". A resume is meant to distinguish you from other candidates. That line of thinking is very simply flawed. How can you distinguish yourself from other pieces of paper - it doesn't make sense.

Secondly if everybody thinks "writing this resume is my best chance at getting this job" then you are willingly competing on the same level, in the same way, as everybody else. Why would you do that?

It's similar to applying to a University. If everyone thinks they need to get top scores on the SAT as well as 4.x GPA to get in then everyone will do that and the final result will be, granted, a smaller lottery pool but a lottery nonetheless.

It doesn't make sense. You have to agree that there is an upper bound on what you can do when you play by everyone else's rules. You can't score more than 1600 on the SAT so even if you do you are still competing against the 100's (thousands?) that did too. Same with GPA. Upper bounds are not your friend when it comes to saying "hey look at me".

You are right though, some companies just require a resume. No argument there. FWIW those companies are very likely not where I personally want to work anyway.

I got hired on to a YC startup with no college degree and just my github profile to show. Actually this company never physically met me in person, had no idea what I looked liked or how old I was at the time of hiring.

I've moved on to advance my career and can guarantee you I'll get another job without the use of a resume. I'm currently looking for my ideal company match though. I'll email you in the next couple of months when I land one.

To each his own.

Just because you did doesn't mean its the standard way things are done, for the vast majority of jobs (especially those outside of Silicon Valley), it just doesn't work that way, for some jobs it may make sense to take your approach but this approach simply won't work as a blanket approach. I know firsthand from having been around tech managers and these are even people who have worked as programmers, and the resume means a lot to them as far as their first impression of a candidate.

I am trying to set up my github and work on side projects as I really would like to work on a startup...however I never really know what to build, what to "hack", coming up with ideas for side projects is where I always fail, and when I do find something that interests me I find that I lack the skills to finish it and I lose motivation....

I really don't know what to do, should I focus on the fundamentals first algo's, data structures, linux, software engineering, compilers etc...or just start "building things" ? I am constantly amazed at people with so many repos on github(not forks) with so many interesting projects...where do they find the time? how do they do it? I can't compete with these people, looking at them I can't even call myself a programmer, I feel no passion could ever help me reach their level...I keep thinking I am either doomed to work for the rest of my life as a mediocre developer or I am going to have to switch careers.

That's exactly why having completed projects on github (and actually working on a live website with a domain) will put you in the top 10% of developers. Isn't that a good leg to stand on when looking for a job?

I feel you man, it definitely isn't easy. One huge point to note is that HN is extremely biased view of the tech scene. We are bombarded with so many elite programmers and projects that we forget this only represents a fraction of the entire tech scene. This is GOOD thing. You want to be in the presence of elite company. But it's super important to not let it deter your motivation. It may look like everyone is ahead of you because they are. But so too are 100x more people behind you. In the end, it really doesn't matter.

I started the same way, hacking spaghetti PHP and being a really poor programmer - I just wanted to make a website to sell some shirts.

The best thing I did and you can do is just keep at it. If it feels like work then you are probably in the wrong industry. You have to have a passion for building stuff, that's what keeps me going. I never thought I'd be able to stand 8+ hours staring at a computer screen. But it's not about that is it? It's about being able to see your creation realized.

Anyway, I'm by no means an elite programmer, but I have a very active GitHub profile =) http://github.com/plusjade.

Email me and we can work on something together. I agree shipping a complete project from top to bottom that actually runs online is hard. I'm stubborn so I just willed myself into doing it. But everyone can use help so please take my offer seriously. Also put contact info in your HN profile.

look forward to working with you.

Thank you for the offer...I will contact you.

This is ridiculous advice unless you are only going to apply to very small companies where you will only be talking directly to other programmers, very few recruiters / hr people are going to care about your github projects and for a company of more than a few people you are probably going to have to get paste one of these people first. You need a resume to get you in the door then you can bring up your github work later on.

Thanks a ton, I am setting up a github as we speak.

toss some contact information in your profile. I'd like to email you.