Many recruiters use GitHub to find developers with proven tech skills, especially when searching for popular technologies such as React. Despite limitations of search functionality, the large pool of candidates makes is an appealing resource. Here’s a basic formula for finding engineers on GitHub:
- Narrow the search to only users (exclude organizations) by adding
type:userto the query. - Specify a location and its synonyms. For example, when searching for talent from Serbia, filter by country, the biggest cities, Latin and Cyrillic translations. E.g.
location:Serbia location:Belgrade location:Београд. - Choose the programming languages candidates must know, for instance
language:TypeScript.
The final query would be like this:type:user location:Serbia location:Belgrade location:Београд language:TypeScript
Please note, there is no space after colons.
If a talent pool is too large or is not accurate enough, you could search by technologies and seniority.
- Filter profiles by technologies using OR / AND logic:
react OR angularorreact AND css`. - There is no seniority filter on GitHub, but you can use a couple of hacks:
- Search profiles by creation date, which correlates with the candidates’ development experience:
created:<=2019-01-01. - Search profiles by the number of followers, with the idea that a higher reputation means a higher seniority:
followers:>=25.
- Search profiles by creation date, which correlates with the candidates’ development experience:
A final search query could look like this:type:user location:Serbia location:Belgrade location:Београд language:TypeScript created:<=2019-01-01 react AND css
⚠️ Warning: narrowing results by technologies and seniority may reduce your list by ×100! Please refer to our dedicated blog post to learn more.
GitHub is a fantastic database of tech talent, but search capabilities are limited. As a result many candidates are hidden from recruiters. DevScanr uncovers all profiles and helps to find engineers quickly.