Re: On github as a social network

=> Original post by erock

After just going through the process of looking for a new job, having been a software developer for 20 years, I always find the process both fun and annoying. I've run international teams of developers in three countries. I've done both software and hardware design and have production code in the wild is at least a dozen languages. I've been an embedded developer writing operating systems and application code, desktop and mobile tools in .Net, and been a full stack developer on sites for some of the biggest brands in the world. I've been a Sales Engineer, working directly with Marketing teams and customers to design solutions for million dollar projects in the energy industry. I've given trainings both domestically and abroad, done on-site support on top of a mountain and in the desert. I hold a US patent and have started a business doing technical writing and design for those with less technical expertise to file their own. I've taught a class on Human Centered Design and revamped software development processes to increase certification levels. I've been on the editorial panel for a tech journal. And I've been the safety officer and taught CPR and first responder classed for many years.

If you go to my Github page you'll find a cli todo.txt app written in Haskell, a script for creating diceware passwords and my dotfiles. I don't work in open source and with the crazy amount of hours I was working in my 20's and 30's I really didn't have time for side projects. But in the hundred applications I sent out this year nearly all of them asked for my Github handle. Some even asked for specific projects on Github that you want to promote. It became a bit of a recurring speech explaining that most of the code I have written is intellectual property of major corporations who had no real interest in open sourcing any of it. The few times I have produced anything that required publication per licensing has been superseded with later updates or projects already in the works so besides my one personal app in Github, you won't be finding anything I've written with a simple Google Search.

And yet I feel, and many countless recruiters have told me, that I have an impressive background. I've worn so many hats and touch so many aspects of development that I could fill just about any role. Sadly, I also had too many hiring managers stop me early on saying they want to bring actual code to the team to evaluate before moving forward and sadly I don't have it. I don't have stars and follows on my Github page and they seem to think that is a red flag. When they ask for my twitter (which I haven't used since basically when twitter came out) or FB or any other social media and I say I don't really use any of them, they just give me this strange look. So bizarre.

I just had to remind myself that this process is an exercise in the law of large numbers. You send out tons of resumes, get a bunch of interviews, a ton of rejections and a few offers you definitely don't want. Eventually you find a good match.

$ published: 2022-10-03 21:20 $

$ tags: rant, programming $

-- CC-BY-4.0 jecxjo 2022-10-03

=> Comments? | back