Interview & Career · Lesson 2 of 12 · Updated ·
LinkedIn and GitHub Profiles That Attract Recruiters
Recruiters search LinkedIn for candidates and check GitHub to see real work. Together they are your online résumé — working for you even when you aren't applying.
Part A — LinkedIn
Profile basics
| Part | Do this |
|---|---|
| Photo | clear face, plain background, smile — no group or party photos |
| Headline | role + skills + proof: "Final-year CSE · Java & React developer · 400+ DSA problems · Open to SDE roles" |
| About | 3–5 short lines: what you build, your best project, what you're looking for |
| Featured | links to your best project, GitHub, portfolio, a certificate |
| Experience | internships and freelance work with bullets and numbers |
| Projects | each with a link |
| Skills | the top 10 relevant skills |
| Open to work | turn on (visible to recruiters only, if you prefer) |
Be active (a little)
- Post when you finish a project or learn something real: a screenshot, what you built, one lesson learned. Short, honest posts work better than long motivational ones.
- Comment thoughtfully on posts by engineers at companies you like.
Networking messages that get replies
❌ "Hi sir, please refer me."
✅ "Hi Rahul, I'm a final-year CSE student. I saw Razorpay's SDE-1 opening (ID 1234). I've built a UPI-style payment simulator in Node.js (link) and solved 400+ DSA problems. If you think I'm a fit, would you be open to referring me? I've attached my résumé. Thank you!"
Short, specific, shows proof, makes it easy to say yes.
Part B — GitHub
What recruiters look at
- Pinned repositories (pin your 4–6 best).
- A good README for each project:
- what it does (one line + a screenshot or GIF)
- live demo link
- tech stack
- features
- how to run it locally
- Commit history: regular, meaningful commit messages.
- A profile README (a repo with your username) introducing you.
Make projects look professional
- No passwords or API keys in the code (use
.env+.gitignore). - Clean folder structure; remove unused files.
- Deploy it — a working link beats ten screenshots.
Common mistakes
- A headline that just says "Student at XYZ College".
- Empty GitHub repositories, or only tutorial copies with no README.
- Mass-messaging people for referrals without a specific job or proof.
Quick recap
- LinkedIn: photo, headline with proof, short About, Featured links, skills, open to work.
- Post occasionally about real work; network with specific, polite messages.
- GitHub: pinned projects with strong READMEs, live links, clean history, no secrets.