When applying for a programmer position, how should I show projects posted on GitHub?

Question

I am applying for a programmer position in a state government (if that matters), and I have a GitHub account where I have posted similar programming projects I have done for my current job (obviously obfuscating information and doing this on my own time).

How can I mention this on my resume? Do I provide my GitHub handle and list relevant projects? Or is there something else?

More Info

My management expressed that posting on public website, repository (such as GitHub) is like posting to public forum asking for coding assistance. As long as information from organization is protected.

But I think it's a great idea to branch off and do personal coding projects as well.

Is that literally their job description? With grammatical and logical mistakes like that? I'd run a mile! — gnasher729, Aug 21 '15 at 22:44
I'm not sure what your update has to do with the actual question. You may want to trim your post down to the bare essentials as the noise surrounding your question may discourage answers. — Lilienthal, Aug 21 '15 at 23:11
The thing about information like this. Its only helpful when somebody actually places merit on this type of thing. You should spend your valuable resume real estate on things 9/10 employees find useful. Information with grammatical mistakes is guaranteed way to find your resume in the trash. — Donald, Aug 21 '15 at 23:59
It was the job description, but I removed it as it may create unnecessary noise — Rhonda, Aug 22 '15 at 12:01
If it's necessary to "obfuscate info" then you should reconsider posting it to a public forum in the first place. Instead, post something which is completely personal and which demonstrates your skills. — Brandin, Aug 23 '15 at 21:06
possible duplicate of How do I mention my spare time projects in resume? — IDrinkandIKnowThings, Aug 24 '15 at 17:48
@ReallyTiredOfThisGame User Riverside777 already solved my issue, thanks! — Rhonda, Aug 24 '15 at 17:53

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 22 '15 at 00:54

In Australia, the hiring and recruitment for government departments is going to be different to a software company, start-up or somewhere more commercial - so that is very relevant to your question. The difference you will normally find is high-volume, low-skilled HR / recruitment admins doing screening for government while hopefully more experienced recruiters for the other jobs.

I like seeing personal and side projects on CVs, while I'm not an engineer, I highlight these projects to our engineers who review tech abilities and can dig in. I think that entrepreneurial spirit, motivation and self-taught skills and personal interest projects with new technologies (what a lot of people use github for) are a lot more desirable in the private sector...

In most cases, you would find the government recruitment process to be a lot more automated, e.g. using a CV parsing database, looking for key words and taking a 'check box' approach to screening. I doubt whether 8/10 government recruiters for programming roles know what github is.

To provide direction on how to make the best of it (besides applying for private sector jobs), I would recommend that you clearly list your relevant github projects - but would classify them in a section below your employment experience. Make sure to use examples that clearly link to the required skillset - and assume the assessor is not a programmer... so make sure you have a quick summary which would describe what technology / tools you used so a lay person can understand why it is relevant.

If you have a section of technical skills, such as a matrix or tech summary, I would include the skills you learnt via github projects, but be sure to be honest and upfront throughout the whole interview process about where you learned and used those skills.

I personally find it a bit annoying / deceptive when people are purposefully vague about experience - whether that is not specifying volunteer vs professional work, dates, location, enhanced job titles, part-time vs full time, or exaggerating their experience, etc.

Of course in resume and interview, everything should be transparent. I once mentored an Intern who lied through his teeth about being former military, knowing how to do things, etc. Yeah, so I can totally relate. — Rhonda, Aug 22 '15 at 11:48

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 22 '15 at 11:38

2

Unless the company requests programming examples it is not necessary to provide a link to GitHub.

You may not want to tell the company that you are applying to that you make a habit of posting on public sites IP owned by your current employer.

The purpose of the resume is to get the interview. The purpose of the interview is to be able to discuss what you have done, and what you can do. So use the resume to tell us what you have done. Tells us what you were responsible for.

The code on GitHub only tells me that you worked on a project that used this code. The first level of review of the resume may be by non-technical people looking for key terms. The people most able to review the linked code may only see the link ten minutes before you walk into the room. So unless they ask for a sample of code there is no real benefit to providing it.

answered Aug 22 '15 at 11:38

mhoran_psprep

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@mhoran-psprep GitHub is not owned by my employer. When I posted code, I did it on my own time, used sample data instead of work-related info. – Rhonda Aug 22 '15 at 11:44
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@SohniMahiwal Even if it's not using the real data - if it is code you wrote at your job on company time and it's not opensourced anyway, then it has no business being on github, even if you copied it to github on your own time. – Sumyrda - remember Monica Aug 23 '15 at 13:19
@Sumyrda Management said it's ok, see updated question – Rhonda Aug 24 '15 at 18:00

When applying for a programmer position, how should I show projects posted on GitHub?

2 Answers2