Looking for your next role? How GitHub can help

Did you know that GitHub can help you with more than just writing code? 🤯

It can be a powerful professional tool that can help you showcase your skills, build your personal brand, and connect with career-changing opportunities. In this newsletter, we’ll share three actionable ways to use GitHub to help you stand out in the competitive tech landscape.

Let’s dive in! 

1. Create a stellar GitHub profile 🤓

Want to stand out to recruiters? GitHub profiles are searchable, and recruiters often use specific keywords to find candidates for their open roles. That means your profile is like a personal ad, and you want it to market your strengths and achievements!

Let’s start with the basics. Make sure your profile has:

• A clear photo of your face 

• A concise bio that highlights what you do and what you can offer

• A robust README that showcases your personality

Then, pin a few repositories to your profile. These can be your own projects or ones you’ve contributed to significantly. Each repository should have a clear title, a README that explains what the project does, and topic tags that make the project discoverable (this is helpful for those recruiter searches!).

Stand out even more with these tips for personalizing your GitHub profile.

2. Show off your technical chops with GitHub Pages 📄

A LinkedIn profile can only go so far; it doesn’t allow your technical projects to shine. That’s where an online portfolio comes in. But building a website can feel overwhelming. It’s easy to get hung up on choosing a platform, settling on a design, and tweaking the CSS until it feels just right. GitHub Pages allows you to create a personal website hosted directly from your repositories. (GitHub Pages supports Jekyll themes to make that design step a snap.)

Once you set it up, your GitHub Pages portfolio can be easily accessed at [your-username].github.io, so you don’t even have to hunt for the perfect domain name. You’ll want to make sure your website has:

• An introduction

• A project showcase

• An easy way for visitors to get in touch with you

⭐️ Bonus tip! You can even build a blog into your GitHub Pages site to share personal insights and learnings from your tech journey. 

You’ll want to revisit your portfolio and your blog regularly to keep them up to date. GitHub user Kapil987 has a super helpful step-by-step guide for launching your own portfolio site.  

3. Engage with the open source community 🌎

GitHub isn’t just a place to stash your code; it’s a thriving community of technical folks like you. Recruiters notice developers who actively engage by providing feedback on others’ code, filing issues, and participating in discussions—all things that demonstrate the strong communication skills needed to thrive in today’s remote work environments.

If you’re not already involved in open source software, making that first contribution can feel daunting. GitHub Star and open source program manager Ruth Ikegah breaks it down in her guide on making your first open source contribution.

In short:

• Think about what skills you have to offer

• Find a project that uses the tools and technologies you’re comfortable with 

• Show up consistently, even if you’re just reading others’ code or answering questions at first

• Get familiar with the project’s structure and contribution guidelines

• Check the project’s Issues tab for issues marked “good first issue”

• Start contributing!

⭐️ Bonus tip! Bug reports and documentation edits are both incredibly valuable non-code contributions that can serve as a great way to ease into contributing to a project. 

Want to have an impact on the world at large and build your personal tech brand? Take a peek at For Good First Issue and lend your skills to an open source project focused on Digital Public Goods (DPGs).

You’ve got this! 

By adding a bit of polish to your GitHub profile, building a personal homepage, and stepping up your community involvement, you’re well on your way to catching the eye of the person who’s going to help you take the next step in your career. Take a look at our open roles at GitHub and let’s build from here, together.

More GitHub goodness: 

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✨ This newsletter was written by Laura Lindeman and produced by Gwen Davis. ✨