How To Use GitHub to Strengthen Your Resume

Boasting over 100 million customers, GitHub is without doubt one of the main on-line growth environments. Programmers use GitHub each day to work on tasks and collaborate with others. For those who’re searching for a tech job in at this time’s aggressive developer job market, having GitHub abilities may give you a leg up on the competitors.

When Codecademy learner Stina Niemann was interviewing for her first information analytics place, she was capable of discuss her data of Git and GitHub. She accomplished our course Be taught Git & GitHub, and felt snug making Git instructions and utilizing open-source lingo. “These small fundamentals, I feel, actually helped me stand out,” Stina stated.

In our course Be taught Git & GitHub, you’ll be able to grasp the ins and outs of how GitHub works, be taught the markdown language Git and its necessary operations, and get a primer on tips on how to collaborate with others utilizing GitHub. Whether or not you wish to begin contributing to open-source tasks or are making ready your resume for the job search, this free course is a stable introduction to the go-to platform.

We just lately up to date our Be taught Git & GitHub course so it’s stacked with much more job-readiness options. The course now aligns completely with GitHub certification, enhancing your abilities, credibility, and understanding of key GitHub instruments. It’ll get you prepared for the GitHub Foundations Certification, so you could have yet one more proof level that demonstrates your experience to a world neighborhood of over 100 million builders. We’ve additionally added new modules that cowl GitHub Actions and Codespaces, so you’ll be able to discover ways to automate workflows and customise growth environments. Plus, you’ll additionally discover ways to use GitHub Copilot on this course, a preferred language-agnostic device that harnesses AI to pace up the event course of.

Preserve studying to be taught the advantages of utilizing GitHub to bolster your job prospects, a number of the potential downfalls and tips on how to strategy them, and the way entry-level, mid-career, and seasoned professionals can use GitHub to make their resumes pop.

What’s GitHub?

GitHub gives web internet hosting for builders who use Git — a software program used to trace modifications made to code. With Git, programmers can work with one another to design and enhance supply code.

Builders use GitHub to handle and retailer totally different variations of tasks. For instance, when you’re engaged on an online software, you’ll be able to add your code to GitHub, invite others that can assist you work in your code, or just retailer it there to work on later.

Plus, as you develop new variations of your app, you need to use GitHub to get quick access to what you’ve already made, providing you with a simple method to examine, enhance, and troubleshoot your options.

put GitHub in your resume

Regardless that you’ll be able to describe your abilities and expertise in your resume, including your GitHub profile provides one other dimension. Most individuals embody a hyperlink to their GitHub profile within the header part of their resume, alongside contact data. You probably have a paper resume, you’ll be able to embody the complete URL of your GitHub profile.

Right here is an instance of a resume for a fictional job seeker named Joshua Parker. As you’ll be able to see, there’s a hyperlink to his GitHub profile proper on the heading of the resume, subsequent to the contact data.

In some ways, your GitHub profile is sort of a developer-specific social media profile. A robust GitHub profile options numerous tasks, every with distinctive ideas and well-crafted README paperwork that talk your work to fellow builders by way of clear code documentation.

Throughout his job search, iOS Developer Matthew Ogtong labored on Docs, our open-contribution coding documentation for widespread programming languages and ideas. Docs is constructed and maintained on GitHub, so Matthew bought hands-on expertise working with instruments that he makes use of each day in his position now.

“Earlier than you even begin making use of to jobs it’s necessary to have a robust GitHub profile and a README in place for your self, no less than simply to offer slightly intro for anybody that’s visiting your web page,” Matthew stated.

It’s value taking the time to ensure your GitHub profile appears polished and thorough. You wish to make an excellent first impression with recruiters and hiring managers who’re looking your work for the primary time. We break down some extra options that make a “good” GitHub profile in Be taught Git & GitHub.

The advantages of together with GitHub work in your resume

Listed here are a number of the high advantages of together with your GitHub profile along with your tasks and contributions in your resume.

It exhibits you understand how to jot down code

It’s straightforward to assert you’re a programmer, but it surely’s one other factor to show it. Showcasing GitHub work in your resume provides a potential employer tangible proof of your abilities. (That is particularly necessary when you don’t have skilled programming work expertise but.) Displaying a few of your finest work additionally provides your interviewer one thing they’ll share with decision-makers and different stakeholders, like the remainder of the dev group.

Displaying your work will be intimidating, particularly when you really feel like your mission nonetheless wants some fine-tuning. Don’t let this cease you as a result of evaluation of what you might’ve carried out higher is a good speaking level throughout an interview. It exhibits you’re introspective about your work and able to evaluating it with a essential eye.

It exhibits you’ll be able to learn code

If you showcase tasks you’ve contributed to on GitHub, you let employers know you’re proficient at studying code. For a lot of programmers, studying different individuals’s code may be very difficult. Employers know this, and whereas they’re usually prepared to take a position time into enhancing a brand new developer’s studying abilities, they’d want somebody who already has expertise.

To make your studying abilities shine, you’ll be able to:

• Collaborate on totally different sorts of tasks
• Work with a number of builders
• Contribute to tasks which are out of your consolation zone to broaden your horizon

Doing this can add range to the sorts of code you’ll be able to learn and work with, giving your employer the arrogance they want in you to maneuver ahead.

It exhibits your collaboration abilities

The capability to collaborate with others on GitHub exhibits you understand how to provide high quality work with different programmers. Whereas many builders create glorious merchandise working alone, working inside a group setting is a crucial aspect of at this time’s DevOps groups.

If you join with others on GitHub and embody hyperlinks to your work in your resume, you present an worker you realize:

• take suggestions about your work
• present constructive suggestions that improves the end-product
• preserve a deal with higher-level aims whereas engaged on smaller items of a mission
• annotate clearly, explaining your coding concepts to others

It lets the employer know you need to use Git

Granted, not each employer goes to have Git as a part of their manufacturing course of, however some do. Somebody who is aware of tips on how to use Git would require much less upfront coaching for these corporations.

Additionally, another growth platforms, like Helix Core and AWS CodeCommit, have a couple of similarities with Git. Even when the employer doesn’t use Git, your expertise with it might be a bonus and offer you an edge over the competitors.

It exhibits your ardour for coding

Builders who use GitHub to contribute to open-source programming have an admirable ardour driving them. The time, vitality, and energy it takes to take a position your self in open-source options—normally with none compensation—exhibits you could have a way of dedication to your craft that will set you other than others making use of for the place.

Potential downfalls of utilizing GitHub in your resume

Whereas the advantages of showcasing your work on GitHub outweigh the drawbacks, there are some things you need to bear in mind when deciding if and tips on how to showcase your work.

Older work might mirror previous weaknesses

Displaying older work is nice—so long as you could have the chance to clarify the way you’ve improved or the way you’ve grown with regards to that particular sort of programming.

Watch out to offer context for any work you showcase, particularly merchandise which have clear deficiencies. It will make your introspection and enchancment stand out as an alternative of the errors you made.

You might overemphasize your dependence on others

For those who primarily use GitHub to get assist if you’re caught, it would appear to be you depend on others to unravel issues versus tackling them by yourself. Do your finest to keep away from a story like, “I bought caught so I went to GitHub for assist. I bought caught once more, and GitHub bailed me out. And this different time after I couldn’t determine an error out, I went to GitHub…”

For those who use GitHub solely if you need assistance, make sure to spotlight what you’ve discovered from every expertise, together with:

• How one other programmer’s pondering improved your individual
• New abilities you picked up by working with others
• How watching another person enhance your code helped you enhance your troubleshooting talents

Lengthy intervals of inactivity might undercut the advantages

For those who select to showcase GitHub work in your resume, there’s an opportunity the hiring group will focus extra in your GitHub work than the remainder of your resume. If that’s the case, inactivity on GitHub might convey inconsistent efficiency, ardour, and work ethic.

To keep away from this, clarify why you selected to take a break from GitHub, maybe since you bought busy with different work that paid extra or needed to deal with extra necessary tasks.

Recommendation for various sorts of GitHub customers

The best way you present your work on GitHub will differ based mostly on whether or not you’re making use of for an entry-level place, mid-career place, or when you’re a seasoned skilled. Listed here are suggestions for every stage of your profession.

Entry-level candidates

As an entry-level applicant, GitHub provides you an opportunity to indicate the sorts of abilities many can solely purchase with years of expertise. By engaged on GitHub, you’ll be able to present employers how one can:

• Settle for suggestions from others
• Enhance the work of skilled programmers
• Systematically modify merchandise till they meet core necessities

To make sure you have the talents it is advisable to produce on GitHub, and for a conventional dev group, you’ll be able to enroll in any of our Profession Paths. For brand spanking new builders, a number of the finest selections embody:

Mid-career candidates

As an expert in the course of your profession, GitHub affords you an opportunity to indicate how one can remedy extra complicated issues and adapt to new sorts of programming, together with studying new languages. The power to amass and apply new data is essential to the skillset of a mid-career applicant.

Even when you haven’t produced stellar work with a language you’re nonetheless getting snug with, displaying what you’ve been capable of accomplish utilizing newer abilities can persuade an employer you could have the agility essential to work in a versatile setting.

Seasoned professionals

GitHub affords seasoned professionals an opportunity to flex their data and assist others with their tasks. Displaying the hiring group the way you help up-and-coming builders on GitHub is a good addition to any resume.

Additionally, when you’ve been engaged on a pet mission on GitHub, letting employers see this work will be simply as helpful. Somewhat ardour mission lets them know you’re nonetheless hungry, innovating, and prepared for challenges.

With the assistance of our programs, you’ll be able to purchase and enhance the talents essential to shine on GitHub—and your resume. We train you not simply abilities, but additionally present priceless expertise working with others. Additionally, you’ll be able to develop a portfolio of labor to add to GitHub and present to potential employers. Get began at this time, freed from cost.

This weblog was initially printed in September 2021 and has been up to date to incorporate details about our new GitHub programs and sources.