GitHub is a widely used code and file hosting platform that allows members to easily view each other's projects and collaborate on these projects from anywhere. Members upload their projects onto GitHub and can edit and make improvements while GitHub keeps track of the different versions that have been saved. This is great for showcasing projects that developers have worked on, and is also used massively in team-based projects where teammates must code asynchronously while keeping track of the version history of the project and each team member’s updates.

For this guide, our focus is mainly on showcasing technical projects to recruiters using GitHub repositories. A repository is like a folder for one’s project in the sense that it is used to store and organize all of the files pertaining to the project. Not only does a project’s repository store all the files related to it, but the repository also contains the edit history of a project so that viewers, in our case employers, can see how one incrementally built their project step by step, assuming they began uploading the project to a repository early in the development process. However, GitHub members can also upload fully complete projects to repositories, which may not have a lot of revision history within the GitHub repository.

GitHub repositories are not only useful for team-based projects, but they can be used by a job seeker to showcase their technical projects to potential employers. While this most likely won’t make or break a candidate’s application altogether, “the more quality projects individuals deliver [on GitHub], the more evidence they have as potential candidates to demonstrate their abilities to future employers.” (ComputerWorld). It may seem as though a GitHub profile would only be useful to computer science engineers, but all engineering majors learn a bare minimum introductory level of programming in their coursework. This means they will at some point learn how to create projects with software that can be showcased on GitHub; so we do believe this resource is relevant to all of our target users.

Resumes allow students to represent the projects they have designed on paper with descriptions and explanations, but they do not truly allow employers to see the details behind these projects, such as the code used to create them and the edits that built the project up. Electronic portfolios, such as GitHub repositories, allow students to showcase in depth their technical work and skills to employers in a way that would not be possible with just a traditional resume. Employers can essentially see behind the curtain and take a closer look at the projects that are described on a resume or in an interview, and can get more of an idea of a candidate’s true abilities. Additionally, these repositories can give employers more of an understanding about how creative, passionate, and motivated a candidate is based on their projects and the effort put in to organize and upload them to GitHub.

While GitHub is a great tool with many different functions, from our team’s experience, it has only been presented to students as a way that teams can store and update code that is shared between them. Students are not truly taught how they can potentially leverage this tool to help them personally and professionally. To address this, we have created a guide that teaches students how to edit their GitHub profile and upload projects onto it for employers to see, in a way that may benefit them in their job search. Below is the very basic guide on how to do this, including a brief video tutorial.

While the video shows the basics in how to upload projects to repositories, below are some sample repositories that may be useful to look at. Don’t worry if you don’t understand what they are creating or what exactly the files do, just take a look at how they are used and how much information they can store about a project, and don’t be afraid to experiment with yours!

• https://github.com/chrishantha/sample-java-programs: contains some sample Java programs.

• https://github.com/navdeep-G/samplemod: an example repository for some Python projects.

• https://github.com/microsoft/sql-server-samples: contains code samples that demonstrate how to use Microsoft's Azure Data products.

If you would like to learn more about the other uses of GitHub or the in-depth details about all of the functions and buttons that you can use, below are some useful links:

• https://guides.github.com/: a variety of general GitHub guides and uses.

• https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github: more in depth guides and resources for GitHub users.

• https://github.com/features: overview of the different features available on the GitHub platform.