GitHub can be a powerful tool for sourcing software engineering talent. GitHub is a software project hosting service on which software engineers create a profile, host their code, or contribute to other projects. GitHub profiles often include an email address, twitter handle, and/or link to a personal website.
Github Profile Search:
Profiles:
site:github.com “joined on” “public activity” -tab.activity
Example:
site:github.com “joined on” “public activity” -tab.activity india python
Profiles with location:
site:github.com “bangalore” “joined on” “public activity” -tab.activity
Example:
site:github.com “bangalore” “joined on” “public activity” -tab.activity python
Profiles with above + key terms:
site:github.com (ios | android) “joined on” “public activity” -tab.activity
Example:
site:github.com (ios | android) “joined on” “public activity” -tab.activity india
Profiles with above + followers | starred count:
site:github.com (“50..250 followers” | “100..500 starred”) (ios | android) “joined on” -tab.activity
Example:
site:github.com (“50..250 followers” | “100..500 starred”) (ios | android) “joined on” -tab.activity india
You can also expand your search by removing -tab.activity in any of the strings examples above. Or target the activity page with tab.activity
Additionally, you can include “email *” in your search string to return profiles that contain an email address in them, however email addresses are obfuscated and the returned results may include some noise if the term email is used elsewhere in the users profile.
Narrow results by when a user joined: By year “joined on * 2009? or by month “joined on mar *”
Github Resume Search:
Github Resumes:
site:resume.github.com
Resume Search 1:
site:github.com (intitle:resume|cv|vitae | inurl:resume|cv|vitae) -inurl:https|format
Resume Search 2:
site:github.com (intitle:resume|cv|vitae | inurl:com/resume | inurl:com/cv | inurl:com/vitae) -inurl:https|format
Github Organizations:
Organizations: site:github.com “joined on” “repositories * members” -tab.members
Organization locations: site:github.com “san francisco” “tab.members”
Organization members: site:github.com inurl:tab.members
Organizations + member count: site:github.com “50..500 members” “tab.members”
Organizations + public repositories: site:github.com “1..100 public repos” “50..500 members” -tab.members
Organizations + repositories OR members: site:github.com (50..500 “public repos” | “members”) “tab.members”
Github Blogs/Personal Pages:
site:github.com (intitle:musings|blog) -inurl:https
site:github.com (intitle:musings|blog | inurl:musings|blog) -inurl:https
Github Email Id's: How To Find Almost Any GitHub User’s Email Address
Traditionally, you may cross reference a GitHub profile with LinkedIn, run the username through namechk and see where else they hangout, or even try to deduce an email address with the Rapportive plugin. you can get almost any GitHub user’s email address directly through GitHub’s own API from the comfort of your own browser in following simple steps.
Step 1:
Copy and paste the next line into your browser
https://api.github.com/users/xxxxxxx/events/public
Step 2:
Find the GitHub username for which you want the email:
for Example: sayanchowdhury
Step 3:
Replace the xxxxxxx in the URL with the person’s GitHub username.
Step 4:
https://api.github.com/users/sayanchowdhury/events/public
Press Enter
Step 5:
Press Ctrl+F and search for “email”
According to GitHub, this information is publicly available. However, you would likely only see it if you were an Engineer committing code to your candidate’s public repository through the Git system. This works by accessing public information through GitHub’s API in your browser. While this method works for the vast majority of usernames, there are a few who have opted not to store their personal email address on their public repositories.
Sometimes it may return multiple email addresses belonging to the various contributors to the repository. You can clear through these by searching for the name on the account ("Sayan Choudary”) instead of “email”
Although on second thought, you may wish to engage the other contributors as well.
There are literally countless ways to source Github and it would be a boon to any technical recruiter or sourcer to get familiar with the network. It not only lets you uncover great talent, but can help you become a more effective recruiter/sourcer by encouraging you to gain a better understanding of what the role you’re trying to fill requires.
*Information gathered here is from multiple sources.
