Using GitHub to get a better job

Presented at GitHub Kaigi

Transcript

1. Using GitHub to get a
   better job
   Paul McMahon
   Doorkeeperגࣜձࣾ
   @pwim
   

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2. @pwim
   41% of GitHub Kaigi attendees connected
   GitHub account to Doorkeeper
   59%
   41%
   Connected Not Connected
   

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3. @pwim
   21% of GitHub Kaigi Attendees
   have never made a pull request
   13%
   33%
   33%
   21%
   0 pulls 1 - 9 pulls 10 - 99 pulls 100 - 999 pulls
   

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4. @pwim
   http://www.githubarchive.org/
   

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5. @pwim
   Ideal Job for Developer
   • Valued by your company
   • Do interesting work
   • Can freely contribute to open source on the job
   • Get paid well
   

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6. @pwim
   Companies like this are
   looking for developers who
   • Talented
   • Passionate
   • Self-motivated
   • Contribute to open source
   

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7. @pwim
   Github is a portfolio
   site for developers
   

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8. @pwim
   I’ve used GitHub to help
   companies find
   developers
   

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9. @pwim
   Recent Example - I helped a
   company who was looking for
   • Internationally minded Japanese
   • Rails developer
   • Bonus: Spree experience
   

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10. @pwim
    How I found them a
    developer
    • I organize Tokyo Rubyist Meetup which connects
    Japanese and International Ruby developers
    • Looked through all members who had connected
    Github account
    • Contacted a single developer who had created a
    Spree plugin and blogged about studying English
    • They hired the developer
    

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11. @pwim
    Having a good GitHub
    profile can increase your
    job opportunities
    

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12. @pwim
    Most developers don’t
    have much public activity
    on GitHub
    

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13. @pwim
    Invest 4 hours / month in
    your public profile
    • Give a lightning talk
    • Write a blog post
    • Make a pull request
    

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14. @pwim
    I don’t have any open
    source contributions…
    • Don’t ask for permission to contribute back a
    patch to library on the job
    • Try prerelease versions
    • Look for libraries that are heavily used, but don’t
    have so active contribution. E.g., not Rails but
    RABL
    

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15. @pwim
    An Employer’s View of Your
    GitHub Profile
    

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16. @pwim
    1. Your Profile Photo
    • A professional looking photo is
    best
    • Don’t have offensive photo
    

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17. @pwim
    2. Public Contributions
    • Regular contributions looks
    best!
    • Try to have one or two
    commits a month
    

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18. @pwim
    3. Repositories contributed
    to
    • This is where an employer is
    most likely to get excited
    • Unfortunately GitHub doesn’t
    make it easy to see
    contributions
    

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19. @pwim
    I rolled my own page using
    GitHub API
    

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20. @pwim
    4. Popular repositories
    • Most developers aren’t the
    author of a famous library:
    that’s fine
    • Any code is better than no
    code
    

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21. @pwim
    5. Name
    • Use your real name
    • You want potential employers
    to be able to find your GitHub
    account
    

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22. @pwim
    6. Website
    • If you are a web developer,
    you should have your own
    website
    • Ideally have own domain
    • Have information about
    yourself such as your job
    history
    

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23. @pwim
    Thanks!
    

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