Mastodawn

sizeoftheuniverse Jul 20, 2023

is it just me or GitHub is turning into some sort of LinkedIn

https://programming.dev/post/800229

is it just me or GitHub is turning into some sort of LinkedIn - programming.dev

Initially LinkedIn was just another site where you could find jobs. It was simple to use, simple to connect with others, it even had some nice groups with meaningful discussions. And then it gain monopoly as the “sole” professional network where you could actually land a job. If you are not on LinkedIn now, you are quite invisible on the job market. Recruiters are concentrated there, even if they have to pay extremely high prices for a premium accounts. The site is horrible now: a social network in disguise, toxic and boring influencers, and a lot of noise and bloated interface to explore. When Google decided to close their code.google.com [http://code.google.com], GitHub filled a void. It was a simple site, it was powered by git (not by svn or cvs), and most of the major open source projects migrated there. The interface was simple, and everything was perfect. And then something changed. GitHub UI started to bloat, all kinds of “features” nobody asked for were implemented, and then the site became a SaaS. Now Microsoft hosts the bulk of open source projects the world has to offer. GitHub become a monopoly. If you dont keep your code there, chances are people wont notice your side projects. It this bothers me. Rant over. I hate internet monopolies.

“Show us your GitHub”

Sure, here it is

“Looks empty”

Ya, I code for work, it’s all in private repos.

“So you don’t contribute to open source in your free time?”

No, I spend free time with my family. Again, I code for work, why on earth would I also use my free time for extra coding

“Thanks for your time but…”

Nah thanks for yours, I don’t wanna work for a company that expects me to code for them for for 8 hours and then go and code for someone else for free for more hours. That’s not a healthy work life balance, dickhead.

sip Jul 20, 2023

I get where you come from. I don’t code after work much, but if nobody did, there wouldn’t be much OSS. As for that interviewer, he’s a dickhead.

Aziz-Rahmad645 Jul 20, 2023

Well, some people regard coding as a hobby...

aaulia Jul 20, 2023

But not expected, and they may have selfhosted repo at home.

REdOG Jul 20, 2023

Sysadmining is a lifestyle

philm Jul 20, 2023

Yeah absolutely I quickly get bored playing a computer game or something, but I just love coding (in Rust obviously ^^), creating new things etc.

quantum_mechanic Jul 20, 2023

I’d love to see recruiters who recruit in their free time, or surgeons who perform surgery in their free time.

Sundray Jul 20, 2023

…or surgeons who perform surgery in their free time.

I suspect surgeons doing surgery in their off hours wouldn’t be just weird, but also very creepy.

quantum_mechanic Jul 20, 2023

I suppose this happens already, with there being a black market for human organs after all.

lunaticneko Jul 20, 2023

Hobby: cooking, meat enthusiast

neil Jul 21, 2023

I can think of surgeon examples but I’ve never heard of Recruiters Without Borders. Unless it’s just CapGemini

custom_situation Jul 20, 2023

there are tons of developers and technical folks that still find it fun and enjoyable to work on personal projects.

i mean, how else do you build new skills or gain familiarity without stuff you don’t use at work?

cliffhanger407 Jul 20, 2023

That’s called a hobby. And hobbies are great and lots of fun.

Monetizing hobbies turns them back into a job.

custom_situation Jul 21, 2023

“programming” is so broad though. surely there’s room to have it be both work and a hobby ?

i mean, it is for me and lots of folks i know.

Meowoem Jul 21, 2023

Yeah same as artists, would you rather commission an artist who says ‘i don’t really like art it’s just a 9-5’ or someone who say ‘art is a passion, I love creating and am part of various art communities to develop and grow my skills’

Musicians, writers, photographers, all the creative industries are full of people totally dedicated to their passion or at least deeply interested in their field - of course people are going to want to employ someone that constantly improves and evolves their knowledge and skills

hellishharlot Jul 21, 2023

Even artists don’t end up working on art every chance they get though. Most professional artists are just that. It’s the artists who haven’t made it yet that are making art in their off time

hassanmckusick Jul 21, 2023

If you know an artist who works 40 hours a week at a minimum wage job and then paints for 40 hours a week in their free time then you know an artist that works 80 hours a week

lowleveldata Jul 21, 2023

Easy. Just don’t work at work and read articles on hackernews instead.

hassanmckusick Jul 21, 2023

i mean, how else do you build new skills or gain familiarity without stuff you don’t use at work?

Woodshedding. I can not learn as fast if I’m weighed down by the idea that every piece of code I check-in needs to be production ready.

custom_situation Jul 20, 2023

you can show activity without showing the details of the activity. which is at least demonstrating you’re active.

autokludge Jul 21, 2023

Like this? github.com/taichi/gontributions

GitHub - taichi/gontributions: GitHub Contribution Graph Hack

GitHub Contribution Graph Hack. Contribute to taichi/gontributions development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub

neil Jul 21, 2023

Fintech is easy to deal with in this regard.

“do you have code samples you can share?”

“would you be happy if an employee interviewed elsewhere and used your codebase for work samples?”

TheLight Jul 21, 2023

What they’re asking for is a public portfolio.

Obviously, you can’t give them code that legally belongs to a past employer and they’re not allowed to look to avoid accusations of copyright infringement.

Especially if they do any reverse-engineering for interoperability, there must be zero suspicion that they were inspired by code they’re not allowed to use.

This is where open source contributions under permissive licenses come in.

Something shown to work in a real project is also viewed better than out of context code snippets.

When you’re essentially saying you have nothing to show them, you’re indistinguishable from someone who actually has nothing and is lying about their skills, so the onus is on the interviewers to vet you, which for various reasons may not be possible, so they’d rather just move on to someone with a clearly proven track record.

hellishharlot Jul 21, 2023

Ok but the original point still stands. Coding outside of work and at work is poor work life balance. Even my own projects I do are to learn not solve an actual problem in the world with code.

DrQuint Jul 21, 2023

And a public portfolio is the CV that states “I worked for this company making thier products”. They might ask for the specific products, but there’s a chance some people never made public ones.

Github is for college and thesis projects. That’s what most people have on there.

The correct answer to these recruiters is still not stated yet. When they say

“Your github is empty”

People should answer

“I only produce code that actually makes money”.

herescunty Jul 23, 2023

Indeed. A clearly proven track record is a given, in that I worked at software company x y & z for a number of years each as a developer in these technologies and with these good references. You don’t need to see my individual contributions to understand that holding several multi-year dev positions at enterprise software houses tells you a lot.

Tbh, if my track record is in question I don’t expect to be at an interview, I expect my CV to be on a no pile.

I think the real issue is that recruiters learn how to interview graduate junior dev candidates and apply it across the board. When you interview mid/senior devs with years of experience for senior roles which require years of experience, maybe “do fizzbuzz” and “show us your open source work” is a little patronising, no?

Might just be me tho, maybe I’m just a prick. Could be.