📓 Sprucing Up GitHub

When you apply for a job or internship, employers will want to see code you've written so that they know what you're capable of doing. Spend some time getting your GitHub profile looking good.

First, make private any repo that doesn't look great and that you don't want to spruce up. Don't make too many of your repositories private, as employers value being able to see the amount of work that you've done.

Next, pin a couple of your best projects to the "pinned repositories" section, so employers can more easily view the work you'd like them to see.

For every public repo, make sure it has a README file that:

• Explains what the project does;
• Explains how to set everything up, if someone clones it;
• Provides information about the goals of the project. (What you were working on and what you were trying to learn);
• Is well-organized with markdown headers;
• Includes screenshots (prioritize for bigger projects like code reviews, group projects, capstone, etc);
• Provides a link to the live site (GitHub Pages, Heroku, etc); and optionally,
• Includes any known issues with the code, and a roadmap for features you'd like to build.

Go through all files in each repository and make sure that there aren't large sections of commented-out code, bad indentation, extra line breaks, or anything else that looks less than professional.

At the end of your internship, if your host is okay with it, fork the code you've been working on, so that you have a copy of it on your profile for employers to see.

You might want to read this article on the importance of your GitHub profile to employers: Github is your resume now.