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So I was rooting around Careers, trying to discover what it exactly was.

I saw the invite-only thingy, but found out that you could get one via GitHub. Fully expecting to have it declined, I try the GitHub option. And, surprisingly, I get an account{*}.

I'm not that active on GitHub (Technically, I'm not even a programmer)--I created an account just recently, and most of my commits are minor changes. I do participate in a collaborative project, but I've just made a small commit to it (it recently shifted to Git, so my previous commits aren't there).

So, I'd like to ask: What are the rough requirements for an account via GitHub? (Rough since it's probably all hush-hush due to gaming)

Also, shouldn't they be made stricter? If a guy like me can get in, anyone can ;-)

Just for the record, my GitHub profile is: https://github.com/Manishearth .

*Now that I have one, I'd like to keep it, thank you very much :)

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By the upvotes, I see that everybody agrees with me that I don't deserve an account ;-) –  Manishearth May 7 '12 at 8:50
We're just persuaded (or scared to death) by the argument that "If a guy like me can get in, anyone can" –  Cody Gray May 7 '12 at 9:05
And there was me feeling proud of my unexpected invite. –  vascowhite May 7 '12 at 10:02
I have a GitHub account, but I have never received any. –  UNNI May 7 '12 at 10:20
@UNNI: I didn't get an invite, I just went to the careers page and tried to sign up and clicked the github option. There was a GitHub option. Additionally, there is some requirement--just an account doesn't suffice. I'm saying that the requirement is probably too low. –  Manishearth May 7 '12 at 10:31
@Manishearth, I think to get listed either you have good reputation here or have a github project.Even if a persons reputation is very low and has a GitHub project, I think he has equal chances. –  UNNI May 7 '12 at 10:35
@UNNI You either have to get an invite (others can invite you, or I think SE can invite you if you have enough rep.) This is a human mediated process. The GitHub thing seems to be instantaneous(if you have a reasonably active project) , and unrelated to rep. In fact, it is explicitly listed that even if you have low rep, you still have very good chances of getting a job via Careers. –  Manishearth May 7 '12 at 10:49
@Manishearth,you are right.Try to set up a project in Github and see the changes.:) –  UNNI May 7 '12 at 10:52

1 Answer 1

up vote 5 down vote accepted

We're working on a change that will raise the bar here, but I wanted to clarify that the goal is "demonstrate that you're a programmer". It's not "demonstrate that you are an extra super awesome programmer" -- that's what your profile is for, and ultimately employers will be the judge of that.

If I were reviewing your GitHub by hand, I'd probably give you an invite anyway based on it: it's real code that you wrote and committed. That's enough to put you in the top 0.001% of people on the internet who might try to create a profile.

With that said, we did realize that we can and should take followers / watchers into account, since that's an implicit peer endorsement of your code.

[update] We adjusted the algorithm to increase the requirements just a bit.

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Why would an employer pay to have access to "programmers"? They already have that. "good programmers" is, IMHO, what you should be aiming for. But the watchers/etc sounds like a great way to do that filtering :) –  Manishearth May 11 '12 at 17:22
@Tim "Good" means different things to different people, and ends up being more of a matching problem with companies. Trust me, we're spending a lot of time thinking about that as well and making sure that employers see the best matches first. –  David Fullerton May 11 '12 at 17:28

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