GitHub Profile README

[00:00:00]
>> Jerome Hardaway: All right, so the GitHub profile README is a special profile repository. So you go to your repos, just like how the github.io is a specialized repository, you go right here. It is a GitHub profile README page. Then you could go to, and it essentially creates a README of your work.

[00:00:27]
It's a detail README, think of it as a part of telling your story on your profile, right?
>> Student 1: So they create a repo with their user name on GitHub and then a README.md inside of that repo?
>> Jerome Hardaway: Yes, so you will create like, sorry, I will go through that process.

[00:00:47]
So, you create a repo with your user name, so Joola for me is Jerome Hardaway, backslash Jerome Hardaway. That creates a specialized repository which is just a README, and it will appear publicly on my GitHub profile.
>> Student 2: That's automatic as long as you create a repo that is a copy of your username?

[00:01:11]
>> Jerome Hardaway: Yes, it's automatic, it does that for you.
>> Jerome Hardaway: You don't have to figure out or do anything. It's not like GitHub pages, where you have to go in and say on a repo, I want this to be a part of GitHub pages, right? Cuz I know that's what you're kind of thinking, like, do I have to go into settings and choose that?

[00:01:32]
No, you don't have to do that. If you do it this way, it automatically happens. I don't add another picture to my profile reading, there's no point in having a, like, the way this UX is done, when you add a banner to your special profile, it doesn't look well.

[00:01:50]
Because you have a banner on your profile next to your headshot or your your profile pic. So it's like, here's this big rectangular banner, and here's your profile pic, like, nowhere does that make sense. Even on LinkedIn, they have the banner above your profile pic, above and behind, right?

[00:02:10]
So I tell people, try to minimize having any images or pictures on your profile README. Now, what I've done a lot of, I used to have a lot of external things from Vercel that would read my repositories. I took a lot of those off because 1, security issues, 2, I don't want it busy.

[00:02:36]
Remember, the HR people, they are getting 600 applications each job now, right? I don't know, you've seen it on LinkedIn when I show you how, this job just hit 2 minutes ago and hey, 435 people have already applied to this job. You're like, how did that happen? You've been up for ten minutes, like, did everybody, I was like, do people just have it ready to go now?

[00:03:05]
That's crazy, right?
>> Student 3: Just to confirm what you're saying, there was an intern application offer from Hennepin County for our department, and we got 320.
>> Jerome Hardaway: 320?
>> Student 3: We just needed two people, yeah.
>> Jerome Hardaway: Yeah, 320-.
>> Student 3: 320 applications.
>> Jerome Hardaway: Yeah, and you select the two people out here?

[00:03:23]
>> Student 3: Yeah, we just wanted two, sir.
>> Jerome Hardaway: So yeah, that is actually what happened in the market, right? So in this type of market, I wanna get my information, the relevant information on what I'm doing fast as possible to the people that that matter, right? So, I omit the banners, omit all the fancy stuff, I kept it nice and clean.

[00:03:45]
And above the fold content, as you see, the minute I hit Jerome Hardaway, that URL, they already know my technical skills, they know about me, they know about my work, right? They see key projects, right? They don't have to scale down to see all the important stuff about me, to see key projects, technical skills about me already.

[00:04:06]
So I already have the keywords cuz they're skimming, right? I'm thinking like, an HR person has to go through 600 of these, now the ATS has maybe cut it down from 600 to 120. So now I have 120 of resumes and LinkedIns and GitHubs to go through. So now I have 120, I'm gonna go through here, keywords, keywords, keywords, go through here.

[00:04:30]
And I am going to, here's key projects, put the key projects up here because I wanna make it easy, I wanna control the flow of information. That's one thing that we have to, for our key projects and pending projects, right? We have to focus on our GitHub. We wanna control the flow of the direction where people go.

[00:04:51]
All right, so starting right here, I want to give you all a few minutes to build your profile README. Start with your statement, talk about your background and the things you're passionate about in technology. Share your technical skills. Make sure you add your key projects. I recommend adding your key projects that are, a, fleshed out with their READMEs.

[00:05:13]
B, popular in production. And c, they're clear to show your skill set, right? They're relatable to your skills. For instance, if I had READMEs that were popular and showcase the things that were good showcase but it was written in .net, I wouldn't do it,, cuz I don't wanna get a job in .net, right?

[00:05:43]
Or if I had a repeat, that was repo, that was a review that was in view, I have no intention of working in view, I prefer Next.js. So I'm gonna only show Next.js work, right? Those are the key projects that I would showcase. And then continue, now this is where, as you see, just like my resume, now I've gotten all the important stuff above the fold, right?

[00:06:06]
Important stuff always goes above the fold. After that, I start talking about leadership, my goals, and how to connect with me. Anyone connecting with me, I think of that as my CTA. I'm trying to get people that connect, that see this, to get into my network, right? I wanna get them to my LinkedIn, I wanna get them to my Twitter, I wanna get them to start emailing me.

[00:06:30]
I want get these people into my personal funnel, like, that I'm sending my resume and stuff out cuz that's what you have to think of. Now, you're sending an informational funnel, everything is a feeder into your funnel for you to get a job, right? I send my resume out, have my LinkedIn, have my GitHub, it's all a part of my funnel, right?

[00:06:52]
I use the same resume, the same email to push everything into my funnel, so that way I can get the roles that I want, right? So you all take about five minutes, start working on that, at least get your GitHub profile live, and then we will go into your pin repos.