Preparing Your GitHub Account

Introduction

You should include a link to your GitHub account on your CV to give potential employers a good look at code you’ve worked on. This is especially important coming out of your studies as you might not have as many real world projects to share. Having a series of projects to discuss and go over in an interview can be useful.

It’s also a good opportunity to show them that your code is arranged and formatted neatly, and that your projects are well organized.

Sometimes you won’t be able to share code you’ve written because it’s blocked by something like a Non-Disclosure Agreement. A past employer might also have used out-of-date tools and languages which don’t reflect your abilities, and so you might choose to rather show projects that you’ve been able to control.

Projects to Include

From your Studies

It’s a great idea to show off the work you’ve done in your studies to potential employers. Let them see what you’ve worked on and created.

Written for GitHub

You might choose to write projects specifically for your GitHub repo. These are nice for testing your own skills and making a working project. Choose something you’re interested in and would find fun to make. Ideas for projects include: data visualizations, a clock with various functionalities, arcade games like Pong, to-do lists, and many others.

Written for the client

Depending on the job you’re applying for, you could show your direct interest in the company by creating a small application that they might find useful and relates to their industry.

Notes to Remember

It’s important that the projects on your GitHub account are finished and do what they say they’re going to do. Don’t be overly ambitious and create a string of half-finished projects.

Ensure the code is neat and readable. Even if it works, it should be easy for your potential employer to read and understand your code. If they hire you, they’re going to need you to create neat and readable code for the team. Your potential employer is looking for someone who is organized and writes good quality code.

Document your projects with a clear Readme that explains how the project works and what anyone who wants to use the repo needs to do.

Lesson Task

Goal

Explore other GitHub repositories to gather ideas for your own.

Level 1

  • Go to Github and start exploring the many different repositories on GitHub. Look for repositories that interest you.

  • You can use ‘topics’ to filter and find topics that interest you. You can also use the search to find repositories.

  • Take a look at how popular repos set up their Readme file to make it easy for people to work on the project.

  • You will see popular repositories have a number of different contributors, branches and commits.