[Spoom]

Another post saying that if I don't have a highly populated Github and a well-trafficked blog, I'm worthless as a candidate to a startup. Good to know; my employer will be disappointed.

Nearly all of my work is behind the screen of an NDA. When I am looking for a job, I'll send code samples, but I get the feeling that's no longer good enough. Is this correct?

In any case, I am noticing these things and will probably force myself to start a blog at some point, even though it's completely counter to my nature.

[wpietri]

I'm sure it depends on the startup, but I was perfectly happy to get code samples instead of a github link.

In that case, though, you should work a bit to demonstrate your engagement with the field in some other way. The kind of people who I most want to hire at a startup are the ones who would still be coding on something even if that weren't the job. I strongly want to avoid clock-punchers who only program because that seemed like an easier job than dentistry.

Note that a blog isn't the only way to show your engagement. A bunch of good Stack Overflow answers. A very thoughtful cover letter. A link to some personal tech project you did. The presentation you did for a local user group. Mentioning the time you spend volunteering with the FIRST Lego League.

[sethg]

I don’t have an open-source portfolio to show off, my blog is pretty moribund, and I spent approximately the second half of 2011 job-hunting.

On the one hand, I did wish I had some code to show off, because a significant proportion of the companies that looked interesting wanted to see some nontrivial thing I had written as a precondition to an interview; “send us a link to your Github page” was not uncommon. On the other hand, I did get interviews and I did accept an offer from a place I genuinely thought was a good fit (and not just “well, it’s a good escape from the previous employer”), so it is possible.