Do you want to increase your chances of getting hired as a code newbie? Then you have come to the right place. I started my first job ten months ago, and I know how difficult it is to get it. Thankfully, I can give you some tips that can help you. These helpful tips can skyrocket your chances of getting a job. Therefore, let’s see what those tips are.

1. CREATE A GITHUB ACCOUNT 🧰

The chances are that you already have a GitHub account. However, that is the easy part. But there is more than merely having a GitHub account. Many developers have a Github account without a profile picture, with incomplete projects or with no projects. However, this is not going to help you too much. On the contrary, it might do more harm than good.

So, how can I improve my profile then? You can enhance your profile by doing these things:

• add a profile picture (preferably a professional one)
• remove incomplete projects
• only publish complete projects
• use branches to add different features
• use meaningful commit messages
• add information in the README on how to run and test your project
• add a preview link to the application in the README 

WHY SHOULD I DO ALL OF THIS? 🤔

Having only complete projects shows your prospective employers that you can commit to finishing things. Nobody wants somebody that starts a lot of things and never ends them. Therefore, if you have incomplete projects, you should either finish them or delete them from your account. 

Also, you should use branches to add different features to your projects. The reason for this is to be able to find your changes easily. Also, when working in a company, you will use branches to make changes to the codebase. 

IMPROVE YOUR README

Another thing which I see that is missing from many GitHub profiles (mine included) are properly written README descriptions. First of all, you should write a small description of the project. What is its purpose? How to run it? How to test it? Additionally, you can add extra information if you want. For example, what you did and why you did it that way (more on that later).

However, crucial information is a preview link to your application. It is not only the developers that look at your profile. Recruiters look at your profile too. As you may guess, they have no idea about programming. Therefore, they want to see how it works and looks. 

WHAT IS THE TAKEAWAY FROM THIS PART? ⚠️

An active Github profile, with complete projects, shows that you can:

• collaborate with other people
• take initiative
• complete projects
• use Git
• deploy code
• the quality of your code

A Github profile, with complete projects is more valuable than any CV.

2. OPEN A BLOG ✍️

Another useful thing is to document your journey and projects. If you learn new things, why not share them with other people? By doing so, you deepen your knowledge, and other people might learn something new as well. There is an excellent quote by Joseph Joubert regarding teaching others:

To teach is to learn twice.

Besides that, if you run into the same problems again in the future, you can come back to the articles and see how you fixed them. But the essential point for me is that you show to prospective employers that you can communicate. You also explain the reasoning behind the choices you have made, which is very important.

However, do not blindly write what goes through your head. Whenever you share information, you should make sure it is not plagiarized and inaccurate. 

Another point I want to touch on is popularity. Do not be bothered by visitors and your blog performance. At least not in the beginning. In the beginning, your sole purpose is to document your journey and to deepen your knowledge. If others learn from you, that is a bonus. But do not worry, if you do it properly you will be surprised at how many people will read your articles.

That is all about blogging. Do not underestimate the benefits of having a simple blog. You do not have to write ten articles every week, writing one or two articles every week is fine. 

CONCLUSION 🏁

And this is the end of the article. I hope you find the article valuable, and I hope it is going to help you find a job. In fact, I am confident it will help you because this is what I did, and it helped me enormously. 

Always remember:

• your GitHub account should:
  • have complete projects and a profile picture
  • use branches to add new features to your projects and meaningful commit messages
  • use the README to explain the purpose of the project, how to run it and how to test it
  • include a preview link to your application
• start blogging
  • explain the reasoning behind your projects (why you did it that way)
  • make sure your information is valid and accurate
  • do not worry about visitors and blog performance in the beginning

By the way, you might be interested in other articles from my blog:

• How To Make Working In Tech Easier? 😴💻
• Shorter If Statements With Ternary Operator 💥🚀
• Making Promises Better With Async/Await 🔥⌛
• Catalin’s Journey To Software Development 👨‍💻⏳
• 2 Weeks Of Remote Working 👨‍💻🌎

If you like this article, chances are you’d like what I tweet as well. If you are curious, have a look at my Twitter profile. 🚀