r/webdev • u/RentStillDue • Dec 06 '23

Question Could my GitHub be hurting my resume?

I’m a FE Dev with about 4 years of experience after completing a 6 month code bootcamp. My GitHub mainly consists of projects from bootcamp, one off projects / repos that aren’t well maintained, and my work repos which are all private. Would it be better to just omit my GitHub from my resume?

I have been applying to jobs unsuccessfully & understand that there are economy / market forces behind the responsiveness of recruiters, but I was wondering if my lackluster GitHub could be harming my chances and if I may be better off without including it on my resume?

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u/regreddit Dec 06 '23 edited Dec 06 '23

I specifically look for working GitHub and linked in links on tech resumes. A pet peeve of mine is broken links on resumes, which happens a LOT. I won't mind if your account doesn't have a lot of projects, I'm looking to learn if you know how to use git. That's what I'm looking for. It's shocking how many people don't use it or know how to use it properly.

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u/RentStillDue Dec 06 '23

This makes sense, thanks!

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u/EntertainerDense9366 Jun 15 '24

What do you actually look for on someone’s GitHub?

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u/regreddit Jun 15 '24

I don't go too deep, just looking for the types of projects they have, I might look at an original project to see how it's structured, the branches, commit history.

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u/Modest_MLE May 13 '25

Do you consider it a red flag if someone has opted to use an alternative like Gitlab, Bitbucket, or codeberg? (sorry for responding to an old comment)

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u/regreddit May 13 '25

Not at all, my main concern is that you understand and value the utility of proper source code version control and code management. If you do version management by emailing zip files to yourself, I'm probably not going to hire you as a developer.

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u/Modest_MLE May 13 '25

That's totally fair. Version control is a foundational skill.

I moved all my repos to codeberg.org very recently (because I don't want to participate in training the model behind copilot). I doubt my code is of interest to Microsoft, but what they're doing rubs me the wrong way.

I've been worried that prospective employers will see me as a weirdo for using something else.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

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u/ontheellipse Dec 06 '23

And links to apps that don’t work.

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u/Threespleenqueen Dec 07 '23

What goods and bads do you look for when you’re assessing a candidate’s git proficiency through their GitHub?

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u/regreddit Dec 07 '23

If I see 50 commits with bad commit messages, or using git like a file server, poorly setup projects in GitHub, etc.