I abhor the notion of developing a private "brand" so strongly and resist-fully that it's hard to keep my cool commenting about it. That said, it would be cool to have a service that would take all the code you have and some of the stuff you've made, and make a decent portfolio for you. Like <pour years worth of work into wood chipper> -> out comes a shiny portfolio site
The idea of github and a blog are the cancers of the industry. Both are so easy to fake that they are hardly worth the space they take up to link on a resume -- however, recruiters don't seem to have discovered this fact yet.
Isn't a new thing, is it? There have always been new ways to test/differentiate candidates, but soon candidates identify the advantage and prepare for the test instead of actually becoming better at what they do. The scores of "Interview questions" books and websites are the evidence of this.
This is perhaps just the next thing, setup a blog and a bunch of repos on github, and if that makes the recruiter think you a better candidate, I am sure shortly everyone will do it, if they aren't already.
To the OP: 5x developer here so I must be in the software afterlife, keep it up there are places...
To the whole Github thing, just had this happen.
Got a call from a recruiter from an company I interviewed with a year ago. We couldn't make things work then, but in the words of the recruiter, "Everyone loved you and we have new spot that you fit perfect".
Fortunately for them I open right now so I say I'll be glad to talk to them, and he says he'll get right back.
Next day I get an email from someone at the company, saying before they move to the phone screen he has a couple of questions. What's my Stackoverflow presence, my Github, and what Coursera course have I taken.
Never heard back in over a week since I replied negatively about those items.
Going to call the recruiter tomorrow to let him know he has at least one person now that doesn't love me.