[CSDude]

You can showcase your expertise on coding through HackerRank, or with sample projects in little details. This helps to me.

[ninja_to_be]

I have started doing this now. However, isn't this something which eats into the personal-time of a person? Why should software eat my world?

Assuming I do get a good job now, I would be writing code for them, which most likely would be closed source. If I ever want to switch companies after a few years, should I start writing such code samples again?

The thing which irks me most is when companies do not even bother to look at my profile without open-source contributions.

[rue]

Is there something you want to work on? A gps tracker for hiking, maybe?

Something simple that’s useful to you. Then stick it up on Github.

(Or maybe even better yet, find a project already doing something you want and help.)

[blake_himself]

It's a competitive region.