Advice on building a portfolio on GitHub to show potential employers? Having a bit of trouble doing it by myself, so help is much appreciated
4 03 Sep 2015 08:14 by u/cooledcannon
Acquaintances I talked to who are into programming/software engineering say I should build a portfolio on GitHub and show potential employers my CV with projects showcasing my skill.
I have been trying to learn how to use GitHub. I couldnt download the desktop version as I have Windows XP, but I was just trying to use it online anyways. To me the interface and layout of the site was pretty confusing, I even tried a few of the sites guide/tutorials. I have no idea where to even get started trying to build my own projects into it or find other projects(that I have sufficient skill for) on the site and work on those.
Here is my current profile. https://github.com/cooledcannon I dont even have a complete understanding of what I did, so basically it was me trying to figure shit out.
I already have learned the basics of languages like C# and Python and have dabbled in HTML/CSS/JS, Jquery and Angular tutorials. Best projects I did were simple games like Breakout/Pong in unity using C#.
If you have more general advice about jobsearching/work etc it would be much appreciated. I have not completed highschool/college and pretty much have no work experience =/. I live in Auckland, NZ.
13 comments
1 u/Massmoment 03 Sep 2015 11:58
Here comes my unfiltered opinion/advice:
0 u/cooledcannon [OP] 04 Sep 2015 03:36
My plan is to do something in python as it seems significantly easier and faster to code than C#. But since Im familiar with it, it should give me the flexibility to do something in C# or Java or something like that if I so please.
I guess my main sticking points are, which projects should I work on, and where should I apply for work. But thanks for the advice.
1 u/mwolf 06 Sep 2015 19:06
I have no idea what the education system is like in NZ, but if its anything like the US there is no such thing as programming in school curriculum until maybe senior year of high school, freshman year college in a CS program.
Try to sign up for any decent programming course in high school. In the US they have "AP classes" which are pretty well accepted courses which are classes high schoolers can take in preparation for an end of year exam which some colleges will use to apply credit for certain courses. For example in the US if I took an AP English class and scored a 5 on it I could go to a lot of colleges with that info and receive credit towards my degree for an english class if I enrolled there.
If your high school has an option to take something similar, try to take an AP computer science class. Or look into if your high school has "dual enrollment" options with a local college. My high school had an agreement with a local college that I could take courses at the college on the high school's dime and receive both high school credit and college credit for the course. I ended up going to that same college that i took dual enrollment courses from so that worked out great.
If you come out of high school with CS related course already on a college transcript, that looks great even if the college you choose to attend doesn't accept it as transfer credits.
As for what to do for work, I'm from the US so I can't speak to how it works in NZ but it's probably not too far off: Usually colleges have job fairs. go to the college fair with a resume, wear a shirt and tie and look professional, show them a CV/resume/whatever you have. Go to your high school/local college's career center, ask them to help you make a resume, tell them your situation and that you want to do programming work. I don't know how they'd react but if they're not douches they'll help you out to give you tips on how to write your resume well and even edit it with you in person.
This is assuming you have at least a page worth of content that you can fill out into a nice looking document.
Once you get to college start going to career fairs, go to literally all the places offering programming internships and talk to every rep. tell them about yourself, as long as you don't lie to them they won't be douches. Maybe they'll be terse and say they're looking for a more experience person but that's just how it goes for an inexperienced high school grad, it's nothing personal to your character. Companies like to pick up college seniors so they can groom them for full time positions so the closer you are to graduating the more a company will try to snag you, on top of having more experience from classes in college. The hardest step is getting your foot in the door as an inexperienced freshman/sophomore, but if you talk to as many people as possible and express enthusiasm, and show them you have some experience with their set of tools so they don't literally have to teach you how to program, you have a good shot at getting a job.
0 u/Massmoment 03 Sep 2015 11:28
Honest question, why xp?
0 u/cooledcannon [OP] 03 Sep 2015 11:41
Its an old computer. Had it since 07
3 u/President-Sanders 03 Sep 2015 11:55
no unix skills, can't even git - well, learn first, before you make a portfolio.
Stick ubuntu on your fucking computer - FYI, my macbook from '08 is blazing fucking fast and I develop loads on it and it runs Yosemite. My rMBP is awesome an all but realize that plastic laptops are a false economy.
Now go get a $5 USB stick and run lubuntu on your fucking shitty laptop and go through a 101 git/github tutorial and then look at a good solid "branch merge and patch" workflow for git.
0 u/crankypants15 03 Sep 2015 12:01
Management minor here. Your hiring manager, or HR person, won't have a clue how to use Github. Just hand them a cheap flash drive with EXE files on it that they don't have to install, and that they can run from a flash drive. Even that will be super challenging for them.
You can tell them you know how to use versioning software (Github) but don't make them to stuff with Github.
Seriously, you can get a 4GB usb flash drive for about $2.
Or make an app that runs through a browser and have them go to that website. Explain what you did.
Linux skills are a plus too. I work on Windows, Redhat, and Ubuntu regularly.
0 u/cooledcannon [OP] 03 Sep 2015 12:51
Oooh, that advice seems helpful. Ill reply to this comment first and I will answer the others tomorrow.
If I was going that route I pretty much have three projects down(Pong, a simple 2D moving a ball game, a simple 3D minecraft like game with less features) and have it ready to go. That leads me to my next question- where(what sorts of companies) should I apply to? I really dont mind a relatively bad job in terms of work/pay as long as I get started somewhere.
0 u/crankypants15 03 Sep 2015 16:49
I work for a printer. They want me to do price updates in catalogs, and get them done in 5 minutes for any amount of pages. And it works!
What do you want to do? Write games? Write business software? Something else? What are your strengths? What's your 5 year plan for your career?
Keep in mind that your basic games are a starting point, but to impress them you want to show how you polished the games with a good UI, good features, etc.
0 u/cooledcannon [OP] 03 Sep 2015 21:25
I thought I wanted to write games, but doing research tells me that its underpaid, overworked, has crunch and long hours etc. So definitely not.
I think I would want to do business software, it should be interesting enough and pretty meaningful. I think my strengths are that I learn and think pretty quickly. 5 year plan- start anywhere, ideally get trained doing something cool, then keep working my way up.
0 u/Master_Foo 03 Sep 2015 23:58
See that one green square on your "public contributions"? That's not good enough. The WHOLE block should be green.
Otherwise, just work on whatever you are interested in. Eventually, you'll have a portfolio.
0 u/cooledcannon [OP] 04 Sep 2015 03:37
Where would I get started contributing?
0 u/Master_Foo 04 Sep 2015 04:56
Every day you commit to a repository on github you get a green square. You have one green square because you committed some code on that day.
It could be on one of your projects, or a collaborative project with someone else. As long as you are committing code to Github, you are creating a provable record of work. Employers like to see that.