How do you assess someone's Github profile? (programmers.stackexchange.com)

4 points by billybob ↗ HN
From programmers.stackexchange.com:

"Lots of people in the open source community say they strongly consider a candidate's Github profile when hiring.

I'm active on Github, with a few projects of my own and some contributions to others. But looking at my own profile as if I were an employer, I see a lot of noise: projects I cloned but never contributed to, etc. The projects and patches I'm proud of don't stand out.

If you assess people's Github profiles, how do you do it? And as a developer, should I do anything differently - for example, delete cloned repos I'm not actively working on?"

1 comment

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I would ignore anything cloned but never changed.

I would think patches were someone who was slightly pro-active in fixing things. (More so with more patches.)

I would think original repos were someone that had ideas or wanted to learn things, depending on the nature of the repo.

And I would examine actual code to see their style and ability.

... Pretty much like I'd evaluate a resume and code sample for an interview. Which is why I prefer to see GitHub account when applicants apply for a job.