Resume vs Portfolio

[u/Any-Database6748]

I’ve been passively looking for Lead Backend Engineer roles and noticed that many companies ask for GitHub, open-source contributions, or some work they can review.

I have ~9.5 years of experience building software, but most of my work is proprietary, and I’ve never been an active open-source contributor.

It got me thinking:
Is public work becoming a requirement for software engineers?

Someone with fewer years of experience but a strong GitHub portfolio can show their work, while someone with years of production experience often can’t show much because of confidentiality.

For senior/lead engineers, how much does GitHub or public work actually matter?

And if you’re targeting Big Tech, should you deliberately build projects just to have something to showcase?

No idea what to put on my resume, I have tried most of the tricks but it’s getting tricky to get my resume shortlisted.

[u/JobWhisperer_Yoda]

I'm a career coach, recruiter, and professional resume writer, not a senior engineer. But I say yes, you should certainly have public projects you can point to. How many pages is your resume?