Can GitHub Be Used To Source Candidates? - Ep20

A fellow tech recruiter from Australia just asked me: "Just wanted your opinion on whether you thought GitHub is a good tool for finding devs still?"

There was no better time for him to ask than NOW!

Because for the last 2-3 weeks, a colleague of mine and I have been using GitHub to look for very senior software developers for one of our clients.

We found dozens of outstanding candidates, open-source contributors, and two of them are now in the latest stage (Offer negotiation).

Back to your question... "is GitHub a good tool for finding devs?"

Well, it's not ideal BUT it works.

"Is it easy to use?" ... not really.

"Can a recruiter learn how to use it?" ... of course!

A real-world example: One of my colleagues learned how to source on GitHub in a video course that I've created and published here - Sourcing Technical Candidates On GitHub.

See, I onboard my colleagues with the same materials that other international agencies have used and paid for.

I use the same materials during the Tech Recruitment Program (which starts on Monday, May 3rd) or the intermediate deep-dive sessions (on May 21st).

So, YES, you can use GitHub. And here are my three tips:

• First, understand who exactly are you looking for. What language, framework, libraries, and tools would this person use?
• Second, identify 2-3 keywords to start with. I.e. in the last search, we used "FFmpeg" which is an open-source library.
• Third, write a compelling message to those potential candidates. Make sure it stands out! Last week, one of those open-source contributors responded that my email was the best one he's seen – I published a video about this here.