How to Assess GitHub Skills Online in Hiring?

GitHub has become an important tool to collaborate, manage code, and even showcase skills. In hiring developers, assessing their skills in GitHub will help you single out those candidates who are not only skilled coders but also efficient collaborators. But how does one go about evaluating these skills? This guide will walk you through the basics of GitHub skills assessment and why it matters for your hiring process.

Table of Contents

What Is A GitHub Skills Assessment?

A GitHub skills assessment would be the process of evaluating a developer for their use of GitHub in relation to their work. GitHub isn’t just a storage facility for code, it’s a platform that is used for project management, issue tracking, and team collaboration. In an assessment, you might look at these abilities.

• Utilize version control effectively, this includes branching and merging.
• Write clear and concise commit messages.
• Team on projects through pull requests and code reviews.
• Organize repositories with clear structures, documentation, and issue tracking.

That assessment in the form of a GitHub assessment of one’s skills can be as easy as a review of the candidate’s public GitHub profile, a live coding session on GitHub, or the setup of a real-world task that replicates how they might use GitHub in your organization.

Why GitHub Skills Are Important to A Software Developer?

GitHub skills are critical for developers because they reflect real-world working conditions where collaboration and code management are as important, if not more so, than writing clean code.

Why are these skills important?

Collaboration
GitHub allows different teams to work on the same project, even from a distance. Great GitHub developers know how to manage conflicts, review code, and generally contribute in a positive way to the team.

Version control
GitHub helps developers keep track of their changes and go back in case there is a mistake. Good developers will do this to minimize risk and not keep a messy codebase.

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Project management
A good understanding of GitHub would provide an individual with the ability to use the various features of the platform, like issues and milestones, in structuring and organizing work effectively.

Portfolio of expertise
A nice, well-managed GitHub profile depicts experience, coding style, and dedication to quality among candidates. It gives an idea to the employers as to what all this particular resource would be capable of doing for their firm.

How to Create A GitHub Assessment of Skills for Testing Candidates Online?

Online GitHub skills assessment is less cumbersome than one would imagine, especially because some great tools like OnlineExamMaker mean that you are able to create an online test in order to assess candidates. This is how to set up an online assessment for GitHub skills.

Key skills definition
Determine which of the GitHub competencies are most relevant to your organization. Example: Focus on things like version control, collaboration, or repository management.

Use realistic tasks
Attempt to introduce real-life scenarios into the setting of your tasks. For example, you can ask the candidate to maintain a repository, resolve a merge conflict, or make a pull request.

Use OnlineExamMaker
An online assessment tool like OnlineExamMaker makes the process even more straightforward because you can easily create, distribute, and grade tests on the same platform. You can build practical GitHub challenges, add instructions, and grade results right on the website.

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Evaluate objectively
Not only the quality of the code, but also how the candidate structures his work, writes commit messages, and uses GitHub for collaboration.

Follow up with interviews
Combine test results with interviews to discuss the candidate’s approach and problem-solving process.

OnlineExamMaker allows one to ensure assessments are properly done with scalability in mind, in particular for remote hiring or very large teams.

How Do Employers Improve GitHub Skills Among the Workers Within Your Team?

In this case, improving GitHub skills among members of your team helps increase productivity and develops collaboration. Here’s how you can help.

Training
Avail resources such as online tutorials, workshops, or platforms like OnlineExamMaker to create skill-building tests and lessons. Focus on topics like advanced Git workflows, issue tracking, and repository management.

Encourage practice
Prepare team projects which involve the use of GitHub features. For example, encourage employees to work in one common repository or to manage the work using issues and milestones.

Leave feedback
Regularly review your team’s activities on GitHub. Leave informed constructive comments for all pull requests, commit messages and the structuring of the repository.

OnlineExamMaker for progress tracking
OnlineExamMaker can be used to give periodic assessments to measure improvement. Make it game-like to make learning fun for your employees.

You can achieve this by integrating tools such as OnlineExamMaker, instilling a culture of continuous learning to make sure your team remains proficient in GitHub, enhancing overall efficiency and collaboration.

Author: Matt Davis

Matt is a content marketing specialist with more than 5 years of experience in content creation, he is glad to share his experience about online education and digital marketing.