Your GitHub profile README: what recruiters actually see

Status: Outline — full guide coming soon. Get notified when it ships →

What this covers

• The 4 elements that go above the fold: 1-line positioning, current focus, contact, top project
• Why GitHub stats cards, snake graphs, and trophy badges hurt you (not help)
• Pinning strategy: which 6 repos go in which order, and the rule for non-yours forks
• A profile-README template you can copy in 10 minutes

Why this matters for Indian devs going remote

A recruiter spends 20-40 seconds on your GitHub profile if you're lucky. The profile README is the headline that decides whether they click a repo. For Indian devs, this is also the place hiring managers verify the LinkedIn claim — a strong profile README closes the loop, a noisy one breaks it.

Outline

Above the fold: the 4 elements

TODO — positioning line, current focus, contact, hero project link.

What to delete

TODO — stats cards, snake graphs, trophy badges, anime gifs — why each fails the senior-eng signal.

The 6 pinned repos

TODO — order, what each slot represents (proof-point, OSS PR, talk/blog, etc.), and the rule for forks.

The 10-minute copy template

TODO — the markdown skeleton, the positioning-line formula, the contact block.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Stats cards showing 200 commits this year on a private fork — looks padded
• Listing 30 skills as badges — reads as junior
• Pinning incomplete tutorial follow-alongs

Templates / examples

TODO — a copy-paste README template, the positioning-line formula (role + stack + outcome), and 3 real examples.

Related guides

• Repo READMEs that make a recruiter open the link
• LinkedIn profile for the Forward Deployed Engineer positioning

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