Beautify Your GitHub Profile like a Pro
If you have ever used GitHub, you must have come across some impressive-looking profiles and thought “Damn! I want my profile to look like that.” Well, this article will help you with precisely that.
1. Add a ReadMe
This is simply the easiest way to boost the visual appeal of your profile many folds. To create a ReadMe for your GitHub profile, create a new repository with your username.
Initialize the repository with a ReadMe.md file and anything you write in the file will be shown in your GitHub Profile.
The ReadMe is the perfect place to describe yourself, list out your achievements and skills. You can also add badges like these to make your profile look even more attractive.
To create the badge the syntax is:
So the GitHub badge would look like:
]You can browse through the list of available icons on Simple Icons
2. Manage your Repositories
GitHub allows you to pin Repositories and Gists in your profile. This is a remarkable feature that enables you to display the things you want to showcase.
It’s also a good idea to add details, tags and emojis to make the repository more engaging.
As you can see, the one with details is way more engaging than the one without any.
3. Contribute, Contribute and Contribute some more!
This is simply the most important step to make your GitHub look awesome! I get it, getting started is scary, so if you need help, check out this article on how to get started with Open Source Development. You don’t have to start with huge features or projects; begin with documentation fixes, then move on to tiny bug fixes and features.
Open Source Development can boost your profile regardless if you are going for a job interview or freelancing. After a few good contributions, you will start getting job offers from various companies.
One essential thing to keep in mind is: DO NOT TRY TO CHEAT THE PROCESS. Every one of your contributions is listed on GitHub. There are a lot of people who create fake issues to get a green dot for contribution. This only creates negative impression on the person viewing your profile.
If you keep making tiny incremental improvements, you will make it; if you try to use a shortcut, you will likely crash and burn. As the saying goes, “Slow and steady wins the race.”
Best of luck on your GitHub Journey!
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Originally published at https://dev.to on May 30, 2021.