[scrollaway]

I have the same results as you do with an active Github profile. Except I don't get cold-called by recruiters but more directly by the people who need me. It's a lot more personal, friendly, and a better experience overall.

I've had people ask me for my LinkedIn and I sent them my personal site instead - they were just as happy with it. When people ask you for your linkedin, what they really want is a business profile; portfolio, cv, etc. They don't want to "friend" you and "share funny pictures" or something.

[darylfritz]

LinkedIn helps many get discovered. Recruiters or companies looking for new developers are far more likely to search LinkedIn than to Google "Scala developers in [local City]." Github is great for open-source library and application development, but it's hardly the answer to ditching LinkedIn. Using myself as the example, most of the work I do is proprietary client work or enterprise-level work that is maintained in an internal code repository. My Github profile does not represent my true caliber of work.

[freshhawk]

Why not have both? Github isn't a social network. I frequently get contacted by people through LinkedIn because of the network aspect of LinkedIn. We both know the same person so they trust me rather than me just being a random name on the internet. They probably found me by searching through their LinkedIn network.

[petepete]

  > Github isn't a social network

Isn't it? I can join, commit no code, fill out a profile, create and join groups, add (well, follow) friends.

It's not Facebook, but it appears to tick most of the social network boxes.

[freshhawk]

Yeah, good point. I guess I just don't think about it that way because you I go there to browse code rather than people.

[spbaar]

Can you message people?

[wldlyinaccurate]

If people want to be messaged through GitHub, they'll put their email address on their profile.

[naturalethic]

I kinda wish it had this feature.