[subhro]

There are quite a few things I disagree with in the post.

> Every developer has a Github profile. If their profile is new, yet they say they’ve been coding for 10 years — you may want to gut check.

There might be developers that just does not want to commit to public projects. It is possible that the developer is bound by NDAs that they can't share customer work. I know I fall in this category.

> It’s 2019. If you’re hiring someone who works on the internet, you will be able to find them on the internet.

Again, incorrect. I intentionally make effort to remain as much of an online ghost as I can. If you search for me on Google then you WILL find a profile, but that is a profile I am forced to maintain and may or may not be the person that the profile describes.

> Often it means they didn’t do the work, and will disappear once the money is sent.

Possible, but it might also be that the people are running on razor thin margins and have bills to pay. The whole idea of selection of contractors on Upwork and similar websites is mainly finding the cheapest guy. If someone in India is beating others in price, it means that there is really not a lot of runway to let an invoice sit for weeks. The guy has to buy bread you see....

[ilikehurdles]

This article just feels like a ploy to promote the author's alternative CV product. It's 2019 and many adults in the room have turned their backs on social media. Not having a profile somewhere is hardly a characteristic of a luddite nowadays.

[aljungberg]

I’ve been told by many many candidates that all work they ever did was under an NDA and so they have no Github profile and not even any code samples. Somehow they never did a single shareable thing in their lives - not at school, not a hobby project, not at work.

Potential employers use all the signals available to make decisions and this is an important one. Many of the other applicants will have solid material. It may not at all be your fault, and yet also be a serious disadvantage.

[subhro]

Ever worked for Federal Govt?

[blaser-waffle]

Feddy Gov has their own eval process, and things like active clearances are useful even for non-gub'mnt work.

But yeah, you can't say or release nothin. But that's true with the Fortune 500 places I've worked, too.

[at-fates-hands]

Totally agree with all your points.

> There might be developers that just does not want to commit to public projects.

Some of my best work has been for private businesses, with a lot of that code being wrapped up into private repo's on my Github account. I was told a few years ago to put together some POC's on my Github repo so people don't think I'm not doing anything. The general perception is if you don't have a ton of public work out on Github, you're not keeping up with the industry.

> I intentionally make effort to remain as much of an online ghost as I can.

I'm the same way. I've told interviewers when they ask about my social media accounts that I have a few, but you'll never find them. You're only going to find a very minimal amount of "real" data on me. I feel more comfortable when I can control the conversation since social media is such a huge mine field. Companies and recruiters want to dig up as much as possible on you as soon as they meet you. What are you trying to hide? What are we going to find out about your past? It's 2019, it's just the smart thing to do to be as anonymous as possible.

[jitendrac]

Totally agree with these points, plus

- I am Indian and I don't fake my identity. But one thing I noticed is, when people came to know about my nationality either they avoid me like plague or discriminate over rates and demand way underpaid contract. For me that is just another hard learned lesson of being in India.

- I just don't use webcam and never do video chat, That is almost an unspoken personal rule of mine. All My social profile look dormant. Last time I posted on facebook, it was 2013. I have Facebook, Twitter, Github[passively active I fork projects and star them if needed nothing else], linkedin and many other social profiles but I have not a single of my photo posted online. Does it make me fake person? In fact I can say, yc profile is my most active one ;)

[microsage]

I very much agree with this, particularly the part regarding having active social media profiles. I can see the practicality of using active social media as a heuristic for "realness", but I'd go so far as to say that this is a borderline unethical hiring practice. When companies systematically preference candidates with active social media profiles they're applying a market force that literally coerces remote workers into being active on systems that we know for a fact use psychologically manipulative practices to drive addictive behavior (not to mention the privacy and potentially negative psychosocial implications).

[dangerboysteve]

I agree with all of this. I'm an online ghost and and my online profiles are locked down and private.