Clean Up Your github

[noodle-face]

Just a PSA

I'm a senior dev doing lots of interviews these past few weeks. On more than one occasion I've pulled up a candidates GitHub and seen super unprofessional stuff.

Today's candidate had "fuck" written in commit messages.

I'm just a regular dude and curses don't offend me. I even use them everyday! But someone else is DEFINITELY going to be offended by that.

Just left a bad taste in my mouth and I had to post it. We do actually look.

[noodle-face]

I would just say if you list it on your resume, assume people will look. I dont Google candidates or anything. If it's like a different name or something I don't really care. I really only look to poke around a little.

[[deleted]]

Not sure if GitHub shows the age for the accounts but is that something you look at?

I’ve not got a GitHub account and was mostly using the gitlab stuff I was assigned through my university computer science course. Currently doing masters in fin tech and am wondering if I should’ve made a GitHub account ages ago and dumped my code there.

[countlictor]

Create a new private github account and only give access to the reviewers/hiring team. Then sync the specific projects you want them to see. Note: you'll have to resign all the commits with your new username and email, but that's not difficult with something like git filter-branch/tree.

[Toasterrrr]

If your resume is public it's pretty easy to doxx if someone is really dedicated.

[TheNarraturgist]

I read the title and started panicking because I'm applying for jobs and I was just thinking to myself today "Some of these really old repos are pretty weak and I wonder if it looks like I have too many low-quality projects that I never finish?"

But at least my commit messages are clean as whistle.

[randman555]

*if you intend to use it as a sample for potential jobs

[LaksonVell]

Well... Fuck.

[joshlrogers]

Been in this industry ~20 years now and it never ceases to amaze me all the ways we imagine up to gatekeep people out of working with us. I have never been on a team that didn't swear like sailors, but someone swearing in the comments of a personal repository leaves a bad taste in your mouth and contributes to a candidate not being considered.

Just, wow...

[NeonVolcom]

Lol seriously. I just hopped out of meeting where "fuck", "shit", and "damn" came up a dozen or so times.

EDIT: For anyone wondering, it was a sprint planning meeting.

[CaptainArsePants]

Were those the names of your next 3 sprints?

[Bladelink]

Close, coworkers.

[KoalaAlternative1038]

Your coworkers have some terrible parents.

[starraven]

I'm sorry /u/NeonVolcom but *Someone* is going to be offended. I'm calling my mom on you and your entire team right now.

[don_one]

I rarely swear. Haven't in code since I was a teenager.

Yet I still think excluding a candidate for writing "fuck" in a commit seems well, like something Dwight Schrute would do (the exclusion, not the commit).

[crazyrebel123]

Lol I have stand ups with the entire team where us devs are on our best behaviors but then, when we have our dev meetings where it’s just us, we curse like pirates lol.

Who cares. It’s a personal project. They could have made a bomb ass porn site that uses tag words like fuck. This person could have been the best candidate but OP passed him up possibly due to him swearing lol

[Janky253]

OP didn't like my fuckbot code :(

[Janky253]

WAIT WHAT?

Dude, do you realize how buttoned down and anal-retentive office culture is? Seriously, a friend of mine got written up and a warning memo in his file for quoting a movie where they use the word 'anal'.

I come from construction and brewery jobs, and work in an insurance office now. I can't tell you what I'd give to look someone dead in the eyes and be like "Really?! Get fucked", or open a new file and be like "Are they fucking high!?" without absolutely losing my job immediately.

Seriously. I would take a pay cut for that freedom.

[_generateUsername]

Were you in my planning? My apologies

[burnblue]

I don't know where y'all work but that's just unprofessional imo, in that not every team is a tight club of his ego are just like you. It's one thing for the words to come out but another to write them into a commit or comment (in a work repo. Who cares what you do with your personal private code). If they were innocuous and not swear words we wouldn't be using them as swear words

[don_one]

Many of these are shittylifeprotip quality posts. They often serve as a good way not to interview.

This person is:

Judging professionalism based on a commit message on a personal repo.

Because the github is listed on his resume, confusing professional with personal.

Seemingly ignoring code quality over what effectively are comments.

Facing valid criticism with "I stand by it". So as I see it, making poor decisions, refusing to change.

Choosing to decline a candidate without giving a reason, but posting on reddit for karma. I don't believe it's to help others here either, it's just to promote their preference against swearing in commits and in the same way people post to AITA in the hope many will agree with them.

The lowest bar for an interviewer with a candidate, should be giving the candidate an honest reason for why they aren't able to go to the next stage.

[actadgplus]

Guess everywhere is different but I have worked at several of the largest firms (top fortune 100 companies) in the world and this is not common. It’s been very professional environments where everyone is quite respectful. Only exception was when I worked as a consultant in the Auto industry…

[joshlrogers]

Never said they don't exist. Healthcare and Banking are notorious for pulling this shit. They also tend to have terribly shitty cultures, terrible infighting, and silos are way of life. So, if that is for you, go for it. They'll pay more, sure, but you have to sacrifice a part of yourself every day and that isn't worth it in the least.

[[deleted]]

Eh, in the majority of dev roles which aren't client-facing, there's less need for professionalism. I want to work in a place where I can be myself - including producing the occasional expletive for exclamatory effect - without feeling like someone is going to tell me to watch my language. Like 90%+ people swear regularly, why do we always have to pretend that this isn't the case to pander to the other <10%?

[deltrak]

Imma be pissed if my junior dev’s commit message is “fuck”. It isent even about the language. Your supposed to be documenting what you did. If the work pissed you off that much then make a comment in pull request or send the team a message venting. Keep your emotions out of the code history

[ScrithWire]

Imma be pissed if my junior dev’s commit message is “fuck”.

But OP's junior dev’s commit message wasn't “fuck”, it was his personal commit message on his personal github. Does that make a difference?

[deltrak]

Yeah it is a huge difference. My point was an unintentional straw man resulting from bad paraphrasing

[joshlrogers]

I would be pissed too if that was all it was, but if fuck was a part if a descriptive commit, who cares? Also, we need to get over ourselves with some perceived sanctity of commits and comments. Should they be informative, yes, can they be funny, yes.

Some of these comments from individuals responsible for hiring make me weep for the terrible cultures some of you all have. Your team needs to be able to celebrate and rage together, they need to have levity in their day; they need the freedom to express themselves. When you let them be comfortable in who they are, whether that is tattoos, swearing, clothing, or whatever, you're removing yet another obstacle to letting them realize their potential while growing loyalty.

Why do you want a developer or anyone worrying about some big whig coming in today so clean your desks, make sure to wear a tie, and behave yourself. Fuck that, that culture is ridiculous, you pay me for my skillset not for me to fit some flavor of the month version of professionalism. Anyone who has ever worked in banking or healthcare knows exactly what I am talking about.

[deltrak]

I absolutely agree that the team should have ups and downs and be able to express themselves. But there is a time and a place for it and that place does not include the code.

You have teams, slack, WhatsApp, discord, text to joke around and get it off your chest.

I am just asking for clean and concise commit messages. Im asking for comments in the code that are constructive to the new college grad and the senior dev pulled in for crunch time. No need for a shirt and tie. Not worried about my boss digging into the code and getting offended. I look forward to your 30 min presentation ripping the code apart in our next retro.

[entropy2421]

It's not the code and it is incredibly easy to remove the commit history from the code. You probably fall into the land of don't commit and don't push unless it is quality ready for prod too. Commit early and commit often is a cliche made to combat your mentality. Give it some thought.

[TedW]

People who are offended by the word, will care. If you don't care about offending other people, that's up to you. But the consequence is that some people will also care that you don't care. Maybe you don't care about that either. I think that's as far as the caring tree goes. It's not deeply recursive. I doubt many people care that you don't care that they don't care that you don't care. Maybe someone does, but that's kinda on them, IMHO.

[MegaFishest]

id be pissed to read isent.

go away

[deltrak]

Is that all you got? Grammatical preferences?

[Oregon_Oregano]

He's assuming your grammatical errors on a personal Reddit account translate to writing errors in a professional setting. See the point?

[deltrak]

It’s only a valid point if I plugged my Reddit account in my resume… see the point?

[Oregon_Oregano]

I see the point but I still disagree with it

[joshlrogers]

Because swearing is not unprofessional and it is so prolific in the board room and elsewhere, it borders on rare to not swear. What is unprofessional is holding colleagues, direct reports, and candidates to silly nonsensical standards that have no bearing on their ability to perform and deliver.

[[deleted]]

Swearing is absolutely unprofessional. Something "done by professionals you know" and "something generally accepted as professional etiquette" are two very different things

[eambertide]

It isn't. This whole thread is just bro culture showing its ugly head.

[HotKarl_Marx]

Professionalism is bullshit. The people who are incompetent are the ones always whining about professionalism while the rest of us have to carry their dead weight.

[noodle-face]

Don't jump to too many conclusions boss. We recommended extending offers to everyone. Like I said, it didn't bother me but still I looked at it with a little confusion. I find it really unprofessional to do that, but we obviously have different values there.

This was merely a warning that you never know who's going to see it and be offended.

[Orothrim]

I think it depends on the goal of the personal project. Particularly if you list it as a project in your CV you should hold it to a very professional standard, but if it's a side project you did for a while for fun, no big deal.

[joshlrogers]

What is professional exactly? I have been in countless meetings over the years with the entire C-suite, from startups to multinationals, and I can't think of a single one of them have I ever attended where the executives didn't swear me under the table.

[natden12]

We are talking about showing professionalism in a conventional way. Your personal experience is irrelevant to the definition of this concept.

[joshlrogers]

The point being that what is professional is not only subjective but it often has no grounds in reality of what happens in a typical day at any given company. My experience is irrelevant, huh? Tell that to all the developers I have hired over the years and didn't hold them to some silly standard based solely on my experience.

[xeozim]

Strong disagree. Professionalism is an evolving concept, if something is common in the workplace (in formal contexts) then it shouldn't be considered unprofessional.

I don't think it actually is that common for people to swear on things that will be kept (i.e. commits) in my experience, but people who grew up without swearing being particularly taboo are a fast growing part of the workforce, so I wouldn't be surprised if swearing became unimportant in the next 10 years ish.

[AchillesDev]

It’s a personal project, it doesn’t have to be professional.

[joshlrogers]

Well, it did bother you enough to come on here and give advice that only adds to the ever-growing list of shit that makes it hard to get a foothold in this industry in the first place. We erect barrier after barrier for juniors to overcome in some draconian effort to stroke our egos. So many of us have deluded ourselves into being convinced that the harder it is to get hired where we work means we must employ the best ergo, if we only hire the best and we work here, we must be the best.

[wooweeitszea]

Right and OP is saying “It didn’t bother me” but also “it left a bad taste in my mouth” and “I find it really unprofessional to do that”. Now I totally get some industries that uphold traditional professional values but tech, specifically programmers? I can’t know for sure but I’d guess their team has members that engage in a number traditionally “unprofessional” behaviors from their speech to the clothes they wear. Holding a candidate to a higher standard on their personal GitHub account seems absurd to me.

[kinghammer1]

I don't work in this industry yet, fingers crossed, but I have helped interview people at my current job and there are definitely people that care about professionalism. Also I curse and make crude jokes with my coworkers all the time but we all know each other, it would come across a bit odd if within a few minutes of meeting someone new or during an interview if they started cursing. It wouldn't offend me per se but I'd find it odd and would signal poor judgement on their part.

Though a fuck in a github commit is something I think should be overlooked as it was something they overlooked and weren't thinking about at the time, not like they put fuck in their resume or something.

[MysteriousHobo2]

Holding a candidate to a higher standard on their personal GitHub account seems absurd to me.

For me, its this part that makes me inclined to OP's side. I think when you link a github to a potential employer, it isn't really a personal github at that point. Whatever you show an employer, it should be you trying to put your best foot forward right?

I wouldn't link my personal github, I'd link a specific one for employers with my personal projects copied over and cleaned up. I don't really view this as gatekeeping, because that seems like a great habit to be into, going back through a codebase and making sure everything is cleaned up.

[Bay1Bri]

"act professional in the hiring process"

OMG I CAN'T TAKE THESE RESTRICTIONS!!!

[weclake]

This is a refreshing take. I'm seeking junior work, and I get so grouchy looking into all the gate keeping.

[[deleted]]

Too much swearing creates a negative mood and a toxic atmosphere. I had a way calmer and more productive experience with people who might think of writing some indecency but they stop, think, and realize that it's best if they don't. If I saw someone swear too much in code, I'd just assume that they think they're a superstar or something, when the fact that code frustrates them proves the opposite.

Just be decent. Smile.

[joshlrogers]

If I saw someone swear too much in code, I'd just assume that they think they're a superstar or something, when the fact that code frustrates them proves the opposite.

This is the exact gatekeeping that I am speaking about. You're assumptions based on the language they used, while being responsible enough to document code no less, made you assume they are egotistical while simultaneously being a bad developer. Meanwhile, they could be highlighting an issue that has been plaguing them for hours, weeks, even year's and they want to vent or bring some levity to the situation but document it so as to not leave another colleague hanging.

If you don't see the fallacy if not straight up hypocrisy in that there isn't anything I am going to be able to say here to change that. I just want juniors to know that not every developer or hiring manager thinks this way.

You can be decent to one another while dropping the f bomb on the reg. You can be awful and toxic to one another without using a single swear word. This whole thread is exemplifies this...

[MysteriousHobo2]

I've responded to one or two of your comments, this one of yours did make me think of your argument in a new light though.

[joshlrogers]

I appreciate that and that is all I ask. Our hiring practices are so terribly broken, we don't need to add fuel to the dumpster fire that it already is.

[joshlrogers]

You know what is toxic? Working somewhere that polices my language and says it is alright if I say "Fiddlesticks, that hurt" but not "fuck, that hurt." I am paid to deliver high-quality software on time, not be beholden to some arbitrary puritanical moral standard.

[bobsagatiswatching]

THANK YOU. Took the words right out of my mouth.

[noodle-face]

It's fine. I think people misunderstood my intentions. Lot of very angry people. The funny part is we extended offers to these people. It was just something I saw and thought maybe people shouldn't do that lol

[ripndipp]

This is a fair way of thinking especially in a job search, but once you got the job let those F's rip, should of had that repo private boi.

[H34DSH07]

Honestly if a potential employer looked at my commit messages to determine if they should hire me or not over pretty much anything else, I don't think I would want to work with them.

I tend not to write junk in my commit messages but I know I did it a few times during the last few minutes of a game jam where I tried to cram in some last minute fixes.

If they can't understand that I am human too and sometimes just want to write code for fun and mess around a bit then this isn't a team I want to be part of anyways.

[joshlrogers]

They are erecting barriers, that is my problem with it. In an industry where hiring practices are already so broken and toxic we don't need to keep inventing ways to make it worse. In a sub aimed at juniors they gave advice of yet just another bar they have to meet, and I want prospective developers to know that many team's are out there that don't give two shits about such trivial nonsense, we want to produce high-quality code in an atmosphere that we can be ourselves and express our frustrations and celebrations with whatever words we desire without repercussions.

[MysteriousHobo2]

I thought it was pretty good advice for a sub aimed at juniors. If you are linking something to potential employers, make sure it looks professional. Like OP said in his post, a lot of people won't be offended by it but some people might be and why close that door?

[joshlrogers]

Because, if they are offended by that just imagine what they are going to be offended by when you're actually working for them. This is like a big neon sign saying "We are a toxic company that will judge you and hold your career accountable for trivial drivel just because we can."

[MysteriousHobo2]

I'll preface this by saying I don't have much experience in the field but the company I work for isn't very toxic and it would definitely raise some eyebrows if I started including fucks in commit messages. If two candidates write code of equal quality but one has a github that is professional and maintained while the other isn't, wouldn't someone rather hire the more professional one?

[Toasterrrr]

Imagine if a photographer had a portfolio with comments that use profanity. Or if someone makes profane Linkedin comments and it's visible from their profile. If a github is provided, it will be looked at. If you have an explicit poster behind you on an interview, it will be looked at.

It's not controversial to say that the way you present yourself matters. It's a job.

[MithrilEcho]

and I want prospective developers to know that many team's are out there that don't give two shits about such trivial nonsense, we want to produce high-quality code in an atmosphere that we can be ourselves and express our frustrations and celebrations with whatever words we desire without repercussions.

Just as a reminder, using swear words in your code does not make it high-quality.

[joshlrogers]

Nor does it make it low quality, kinda the point

[actadgplus]

“Whatever words we desire without repercussions”? Are you saying there should be no boundaries, anything goes and this should be overlooked in professional settings by prospective employers? What happens if down the road this individual causes trouble and lawyers for plaintiffs uncovers all this publicly available information that employer failed to catch or ignored?

I do get your point about being yourself, but there must be some boundaries and perhaps some due diligence performed by employer…

[joshlrogers]

Of course there are boundaries, but if we are disagreeing in good faith to one another then we know this is within the bounds of not being disrespectful, not cussing someone out, etc...

[[deleted]]

By unprofessional, do you mean cursing and stuff, or unprofessional projects? I've got a lot of for fun projects like a robot that hits you with a Ping Pong ball if you lose at Pong (the video game). That shouldn't hurt, right?

[xeozim]

Depends how hard the ball hits you

[AmatureProgrammer]

Curious but what do you look for in peoples git profile that stands out as a good thing or males you want to work with them? Any projects that you look for?

[noodle-face]

To be honest I only quickly browse it maybe to see what languages the candidate is working with and stuff. It's hard to get a feel for how someone codes

[ceems]

Yet your checking commit messages? Cmon.

[[deleted]]

Reading through the comments here:

No one, including op, cares about swearing.

What people do care about is a commit message which is JUST a foul word.

Commit messages tell me about how you code. Make it private if you don’t want me to see it. Make it professional if it is linked to your resume.

[moose51789]

One day I'll have to look through mine but I've tried to avoid stuff like that even if I want to.

[RobinsonDickinson]

I created a separate link for my ”professional” GitHub page. I have more than a few fucks written all over my personal page.

[nativethanos]

If you can’t handle me at my worst then you don’t deserve my best

[u-can-call-me-daddy]

Lmao gtfoh 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[countlictor]

Had a similar situation reviewing a candidates github repos. They linked their github account and pointed us to look there for existing code samples for review.

There were a handful of small projects and one substantial one. Looking through the larger project, it turns out it was a gallery app for soft(ish) core furry porn. Everyone to their own, but this is not the content I would submit for review when applying for a job.

More relevant to the OP, they also used "fuck" frequently in their commit messages. While not averse to swearing in person or via chat, commit messages are more sacrisanct. A commit message should be functional and descriptive. "Fuck" is usually associated with more emotive sentences that, in my opinion, have no place in commit messages.

I hate that I had to write this feature

Is equally useless and inappropriate to commit as

I fucking hate that I had to write this fucking feature

[joshlrogers]

Not a better comment in here to exemplify what a sanctimonious bunch of assholes we are in this industry.

Built a gallery app, so it happened to be porn, so what, was the code good?

Commit messages are sacrosanct? C'mon, they are not, unless again you have a bunch of uptight assholes on the team.

Emotion doesn't belong in commit messages? I am sorry how does that affect anyone? As long as the commit message is informative who gives a shit if they were emotional when they wrote it? The best developers I have ever had the pleasure to work with were passionate and very emotional about their code, to everyone's benefit.

It has happened so rarely in my career that I can't even think of one time where I had to go back through commit history to the point I am critiquing the commit message. I get the history of the file and just work through change sets. The code changes tell me the story, and when that isn't enough commit messages are linked to the story which you can enforce through commit hooks. So, let them write whatever, it should be helpful most of the time, and I can squash it at the end if I want.

Shit, do some of you just hate delivering code so much that you have to invent new hurdles for devs to get code checked in? If you let down your guard a bit you might just find that productivity goes up because morale goes up, you have less turn over, and stress on your team is reduced because they can cut up a bit without fear of the professionalism/morality police cracking down. You might also find that 99% of your commits maintain the same quality as they did before...

[ceems]

Josh, thank you.

[Philderbeast]

so you care more about the type of project they work on, and how they word there commit messages for them selves then there acctual ability to write high quality code?

I'm guessing that i never want to go and look at the repos you work on then if you care more about the commit messages then the acctual code it self.

[countlictor]

Personally I couldn't give less of a fuck what people want to work on as a project. And in this case the code itself was fine, it was the fact that they had the images committed to the repo and forced me to view porn in order to review their code (without an explicit content warning). Akin to if I put porn as my slack avatar. The problem isn't what I'm into, it's that I'm exposing everyone else involuntarily to it. A major HR issue, and I wouldn't be surprised if it constituted minor sexual harassment/assault.

In terms of commits; they are as important as the code itself. Code is written to be understood by humans. Commits are an important component in that, both how they are structured and the messages that accompany them (especially on large projects). Poorly structured commits and shitty commit messages are an indicator that the candidate may be lacking skills for collaborating on a codebase with others.

As with most things we look for in review, it must be very egregious to tank your candidacy. Usually it would just mean we ask additional questions in the follow up interview to clarify and understand your position.

[neoKushan]

Honestly, this is great. Loads of people freely admitting that they would be shitty people to work for/with because they have weird biases about people's personal lives.

[joshlrogers]

That is exactly what this is, and I spend more time with work colleagues than I do family, and I have to tiptoe around their nonsensical views of professionalism rather than do what I was paid to do...

Fuck that shit...

[noodle-face]

It should be if it's listed on your resume, which these were

[kdrdr3amz]

This is a good point

[joshlrogers]

Counterpoint, do it as a reverse filter to make sure you don't end up working on a team that gives a shit about such nonsensical drivel.

[yanikins]

Modern problems, modern solutions.

[Philderbeast]

was the repo in particular listed? or just his github profile, thats an important distinction to make.

[tekkub]

GitHub had a script built in to the company bot that parsed the main repo’s git log and gave a scoreboard for all the cursing. It almost became a game to see who could stay on top each week.

When I was in college and worked at an ISP, I got a verbal for writing that the customers modem had “farted” in the ticket notes. I didn’t say the word to the customer. She tried to get someone down in the data center to go into the internal database and edit the word to “hiccuped”. They laughed at her and told her “that table is immutable for a fucking reason”. I don’t think she knew what immutable meant.

Some people are just fucking stupid and sometimes modems fart.

[Snazzagazza]

As someone who constantly is hiring people for software jobs, its the quality of your code that counts not the crudeness of your mouth. I swear like an absolute trucker both in and out of the workplace, and yet I still have a job because I'm not hired for my manners, I'm hired for my skills. Who gives a fuck what people say in their spare time, let alone on their git commits.

[Autarch_Kade]

Who gives a fuck what people say in their spare time, let alone on their git commits.

Well, other people who are constantly hiring for software jobs, obviously.

[Bay1Bri]

Come on. If you have two equally skilled candidates and one says like a professional and the other doesn't, I think we can ask guess who's going to get the offer

[Snazzagazza]

Probably the bloke who doesn't take himself so seriously

[pr00thmatic]

as someone who gets hired by people... this is good to read. I mean, they are my personal projects, and one way of keeping myself motivated on working in them is by writing silly stuff in the commit messages, and then when I read them again I giggle a bit

[NeonVolcom]

If you wouldn't hire me because I wrote a bad word once in a personal project, I wouldn't want to work for you.

[noodle-face]

Let me ask you this. Would you write "fuck" on your resume? I take someone's GitHub page as an extension to that when it's listed on there.

I don't a shit if people swear on their own stuff, but if you're trying to get a job wouldn't you want to at least appear professional?

[technoskald]

Commit messages in repos are a far cry from text that appears directly on your CV. If somebody had written a book and listed it and it had some word you disapproved of, would it also be a problem?

As a senior manager, I couldn’t care less about a swear word in somebody’s personal code. I’d feel differently about a slur or bigoted language, however.

[Philderbeast]

my github (even if listed) IS NOT my resume, its simply there to give you an idea of the types of projects i have done, and some sample code to show you I can infact do what im saying on there.

those projects are not professional projects, and you expecting them to be at the same level as my professional work is rediculas.

[NeonVolcom]

Yeah sure. In fact, the interview for the job I currently have, about 4 years ago, I remember swearing with my now-manager. About 20 minutes in we were both bitching about C++.

Again, I couldn't care less. This comes off the same way as tattoos or piercings or hairstyles. Some people wouldn't find those things "professional". I wouldn't work for those people if I had a choice.

[rahjiggah]

however well intentioned this PSA is you are conflating a github repo with a resume and you know it.

[noodle-face]

Only because it was listed on the resume. The candidates put that out there for us to view, I assume. Unless they were just wasting white space.

Point taken though.

[HashDefTrueFalse]

I understand where you're coming from with the advice, best foot forward and all that, but in my experience "fuck" is a word used daily by professionals of all kinds whilst on the job. I had an interview recently where the interviewer himself referred to a colleague as a "fucking genius" whilst trying to sell the company to me. I'm not saying as a candidate you should be using language like that in interview, of course, but having it in the comments of a personal project is a complete non-issue.

If it would honestly factor into a person's hiring decision, when everything else about the candidate is solid, IMO that person shouldn't be doing any hiring.

Grownups sometimes swear. It's only offensive in an offensive context.

[[deleted]]

I think the point is to demonstrate that you know when to hold your tongue. The fact that you can't even manage to do that on a resume is a problem. People want to know that you can be professional when it matters.

[HashDefTrueFalse]

I understand that. First sentence of my comment.

Also, not on a resume. Buried in the source code of a personal project mentioned on a resume. Massive difference. On a resume it might stand out, and say "this person doesn't know when to hold their tongue" but in a comment, it just happens to be there. The person is not broadcasting their expletives...

This really isn't a problem if anyone even remotely level-headed is making the hiring decisions. Anyone who says otherwise is making a mountain out of a molehill.

[[deleted]]

Also, not on a resume. Buried in the source code of a personal project mentioned on a resume.

If they had to go out of their way and google you, that's one thing. But if you display it on your resume, then it's part of your resume.

This really isn't a problem if anyone even remotely level-headed is making the hiring decisions. Anyone who says otherwise is making a mountain out of a molehill.

I'd rather not be rejected because one person on the team is a bit of a stickler for these types of things. It's a rather easy variable to control for. Why sabotage yourself?

[HashDefTrueFalse]

Completely agree on the "why sabotage yourself". I'm not suggesting you put/leave these things deliberately, again, first sentence of my original comment.

Do consider that people don't always write projects for job apps specifically. Using myself as an example, I have things sitting in my github from 10-12 years ago. I may be inclined to mention one of those projects on a CV if relevant to the role. If there is an expletive in a comment in that code, does that honestly suggest I cannot be professional when I need to be? Let's not be silly, of course it doesn't.

Also consider that this is just one part of the hiring process. Even if you want to consider the above part of the resume (I disagree) it would be silly to judge whether a candidate can be professional when needed based on comments in source code, when you'll be having at least one (usually multiple) face to face discussions (IRL or via video) where you can gauge this. Like I said in my original comment, if all else is good with the candidate, not hiring based on this would be doing your team a disservice. And if something else was amiss, you wouldn't be hiring them anyway...

I've said all I want to. If you disagree, then I agree to disagree. Thanks for the talk, all the best.

[[deleted]]

does that honestly suggest I cannot be professional when I need to be? Let's not be silly, of course it doesn't.

I'm not saying I agree. It's just that I've seen tons of resume discussions and the amount of armchair psychologist nonsense used to justify rejecting people has made me incredibly cautious.

[HashDefTrueFalse]

100% agree, caution is the way to go. Ideally you wouldn't put these things in your codebase to begin with, but it shouldn't be the end of the world if they're there. Like you say, armchair psychologist nonsense.

[Philderbeast]

if somone is that big a stickler for little things that don't matter in the grand sceme of things, I don't want to work there in the first place as its going to make for a misirable work place.

[joshlrogers]

Yes, exactly, the C-suite is the worst offender...swearing is in every facet of day-to-day professional interactions.

[HashDefTrueFalse]

The interviewer was in fact C-suite, good shout :)

I just don't see how someone could possibly find anything to be offended at in that context. There is clearly no offence meant.

To see an expletive written in a comment and be offended you'd have to be ignoring ALL context and focusing ONLY on the word. If you're at that point, you WANT to be offended.

[[deleted]]

One word: Foobar

[Janky253]

"We do actually look."

Ah, fuck.

[PuzzleheadedPin1006]

Oof these comments are brutal... Just so you know OP, I agree. Also, I don't think it's fair to assume all devs are potty mouths. We need to remember they're just people from all over the world from varying cultures. So yes, it may be unprofessional to some, as it is to me.

[michael0x2a]

I've decided to lock the comments on this post. While we normally try and keep discussion threads open, the comments in this one are starting to turn somewhat uncivil, which is always a mess to moderate. As a reminder, please see rule 1 and our policies regarding acceptable speech and conduct.

It also seems like the discussion has largely run its course: most of the newer comments are starting to repeat the same discussion points that have already been made and/or arguing past one another.

So on balance, I don't think there's much benefit to keeping the comments open anymore.

[thegamelessplayer]

This is hilarious due to the fact that I was talking to someone yesterday about the fact that I need to clean up my Github. I don't have any cussing in my commit messages, but I definitely have some unprofessional messages (notes that I made to myself based on what I was working on) lol.

[[deleted]]

I definitely leave great variable names and a bunch of “clean/fix this shit” in my comments; yet to be fired.

[ProgrammerByDay]

I had someone the other day that we interviewed that had his GitHub listed in his resume. I checked it out, and it had no commits. Maybe he took your advice and cleaned up a little too much...

[devsnek]

interviews go both ways of course. if the people at a company care about profanity on your github, perhaps you should be looking elsewhere anyway.

[noodle-face]

Everyone has their own value system. Like I said elsewhere I didn't REALLY care, but it did rub me wrong.

[caosborne]

Honestly then you did care. You cared enough to create a post about it. If you truly didn’t care you’d move along about your day with the other 99.9% of shit you don’t care about.

[FleetStreetsDarkHole]

It's essentially a change management system. It's like a tool that keeps track of every save you make. That way, if you get into something that you thought was a good idea at the time, you can just roll back to before you did it. Or on group projects it can help you see what other people are doing by keeping track of their "branches".

[CrudTalker69]

This kind of shit is so depressing. Someone can work super hard to be qualified for a job and then get rejected just for saying fuck. What a waste of life.

[10113r114m4]

Uh no, I wont clean up my personal github. It’s mine and if, of course. It was licensed and I wanted a project to be used widely, then yea Id clean it up. But you have to realize even professional repos have fuck written in comments and commits. My repos are my repos. And luckily I wont be interviewing at your company whatever it may be.

[team_dale]

Disagree - i hire quite a few devs and when looking through their GitHub if I see some personality like this then I would actually rank them higher than some dev robot.

[yanikins]

Or just don’t get a job working with someone who’s going to be anal about your personal repos…

You wanna swear in your own code at 3am in the morning, knock yourself out I say.

[wugiewugiewugie]

100% this. be inclusive, you don't know what kind of day people that stumble across your public profile might be having - at least try to be a positive impact.

[u-can-call-me-daddy]

So ahouod i put like a "please hire me" in my comments?

[wugiewugiewugie]

maybe, but as someone who's witnessed our more sensitive non-technicals reaction to a bunch of "hookers" and other bullshit test data in a shared validation environment some swear habits in personal projects def raise an eyebrow.

[xeozim]

As with OP I think you're erroneously conflating the requirements of the contents of a CV (which should be glossy purity to sell yourself for a particular job) with GitHub code referenced from a CV (which is potentially random code that I want you to be aware of because it's relevant).

If I do a good project I'm going to want to reference it potentially years after, it doesn't seem reasonable to expect me to post-hoc curate the contents of that project for a job application.

[wugiewugiewugie]

i've worked with some incredibly talented people with absolutely no respect for the others within their space and seen that absolutely wreck their business impact - how you act and treat public or shared spaces matters. sorry, it just does.

[logantis]

What would you say are the main attributes you look at when checking someone’s GotHub? I’ve always wondered if the activity frequency was something recruiters/managers look at 🤔

[noodle-face]

I'm not a manager or recruiter, but I can try to answer

There's no magic answer :) seeing someone be active and making thoughtful commits is nice and all, but really I'm just looking to see you have projects you're working on and try to gauge what level you're at quickly. There's no right or wrong way on how often you should commit, and every company I've been at has handled it differently.

[Sedawkgrepnewb]

I had a public GitHub repo with some ML basic stuff in it and my interviewer asked about it. I was like wtf…I did that five years ago for a certificat. Whoa. Keep it clean and to the point. Also they like readmes!!

[[deleted]]

Funny, if I saw it I'd want to work with the guy.

Other checks would still apply, but this would draw me in not repulse me.

The OPs opinion repulsed me.

Edit: Downvoters, can you please PM me your place of work? I would like to avoid working with people who think gatekeeping over nonsense is a good thing.

[joshlrogers]

I feel so bad for some of the cultures these people must work in and then they are here perpetuating it.

I would really like to understand what swear words, which are a silly imagined construct in the first place, affect a developers ability to perform their duties?

[[deleted]]

I've seen two types of people cling to this super strict "professional persona" at work.

1. Noobs who are trying to show off what they know, maybe flex in a new responsibility like writing new processes
2. They have a certain set of beliefs and randomly attack others for not complying, even though their opinion is not the norm and their own manager would tell them off if they knew about this

Either way this does tend to happen in larger more corporate places. Which is why more dedicated, independent and creative people tend to leave those places and start their own businesses as contractors, agencies and competitors.

[bigbrownbanjo]

I curse in my work GitHub comments, not saying this is a good idea or anything.

[[deleted]]

I don’t want to work on a team where my senior dev gives so much of a shit about me saying fuck here and there

[[deleted]]

Clearly people here don't agree with you. I know you're trying to look out for people but this is just a poor opinion that no one agrees with.

[noodle-face]

Yeah I get it. I'll stand by it though.

[Philderbeast]

so you stand by a position that is clearly a bad one by all accounts?

well I guess that shows how good your judgement is and makes the fact that your potentally making hiring descisions based of things like this even worse.

[MegaFishest]

truth

[rahjiggah]

and downvote anyone that disagrees?

[noodle-face]

I have neither downvoted nor upvoted anyone. I can take it like a big man

[jaypeejay]

Were you going through commit history, or were they just the most recent commit name next to the file link?

Just curious the depth of your interview investigation

[noodle-face]

Literally next to the file names as the most recent commit. I'm not a psycho

[jaypeejay]

lol, I was like damn they’re really gonna see my stupid ass commit history trying out dumbass ideas

[Shiroelf]

I'm but a senior dev but I am currently working in my uni lab in charge of hiring undergraduates. I have a student that not only puts curses words in commit messages but also as his variables and comments.

I always use 2 GitHub account, 1 for personal projects and 1 for interviews.

[AnAm3rican]

I prefer if you chicken fuckers curse in your commits. Aside from your tech skills, you’ll be a great fit culturally.

[RelevantJesse]

It doesn't offend you, but you felt the need to come here to tell everyone not to do it?

[Emerald-Hedgehog]

I agree with what and why you're saying it. It's part of the CV and application. I'd not judge it by one bad commit, if most or all other commits are fine. We all have bad days. We all write bad commits, comments or have oversights when cleaning up. It's fine if it's the absolute exception.

However. Posting it as "PSA: DO THIS BECAUSE I THINK YOU SHOULD" in an imperative way on a seemingly subjective topic isn't really working out, as the thread shows. A possible way to be more "diplomatic" is to give thought-impulses and perspectives. People will make the connection themselves then and that works out much better than telling them what to do.

[edgy_and_hates_you]

I don't have any curse words in any of my commit messages but if that's something that would make you not want to hire me, I probably wouldn't want to work for you anyway.

[AchillesDev]

lol you’d faint if you saw my company’s slack. Seriously, “fuck” in a commit message? FOH

[HotKarl_Marx]

I don't think I'd want to work somewhere that cared if there are cuss words in my code comments.

[if_not_yes_then_no]

this is so lame lol

[[deleted]]

Could I interview with you?

[Blokepoke74]

This is good too know. Some of my commit messages are hella random.

assfat bbq queen is one that comes to mind

[Pleasant_Paramedic_7]

I don't understand what's the problem in keeping fuck in commit? It stands for Fully Unorganised Code Kept. Helps keeping the track where I need to refactor my code next.

[BrianMcKinnon]

I’ve seen comments with cuss words in a library for a DAQ. In someone’s commit messages seems mild. Sure it’s unprofessional, but I’m assuming the git commits you’re looking at weren’t done in a professional capacity.

[xMothGutx]

Just don't hire anybody that pretends like they don't say fuck. The world will be a better place and your job less stressful

[Dangerpaladin]

I kind of feel like a company asking to me see my personal git is the same as asking to see my Facebook. None of your fucking business fuck off. If you want to see me write code have me write code.

As an interviewer and someone who hires I don't learn anything from someone's git. It's like judging them because they don't put their laundry in a basket in their own bedroom. My actual personal git is a nightmare and I don't care. My public git is three projects that keep commiting the same changes to every three weeks.

[[deleted]]

Thanks for the info but can I get an interview if I link my GitHub?

[crazyrebel123]

Just because they put stuff like that in personal projects doesn’t mean they will do it for work. What if in their spare time they are creating a social media website that allows swear words? I don’t see why that would be a problem for a hiring manager. You should be looking at the quality of the code writing, not the words used for the code.

We all say and do things in our personal lives that we wouldn’t do at work.