Write clean code.
Ship reliable systems.
Solve complex problems.

And yet, in today’s internet-first world, great engineering work often goes unnoticed.

That gap—between skill and visibility—is the reason I wrote the book Digital Footprint for Software Engineers.

This article breaks down what a digital footprint actually looks like for developers, why it has become a non-negotiable part of career growth, and how you can build one authentically without turning into a "personal branding" influencer.

What is a digital footprint for software engineers?

A digital footprint is the collection of professional signals you leave online.

For a software engineer, this includes:

• GitHub repositories and commit history

• LinkedIn profile and experience

• Technical blogs or articles

• Talks, open-source contributions, or community involvement

• Portfolio websites and search results

Whether you actively curate it or not, your digital footprint already exists.

The real question is: Is it intentional—or accidental?

Why software engineers can no longer ignore online presence

The hiring and opportunity pipeline has changed.

Earlier, careers were often advanced through resumes and referrals.
Today, opportunities often start with a Google search.

Recruiters, founders, hiring managers, and collaborators search:

• your name

• your GitHub username

• your LinkedIn profile

Before the first conversation, decisions are already forming.

A weak or invisible digital footprint doesn’t mean you lack skill—but it reduces your surface area for opportunity.

Digital footprint is not “personal branding.”

Let’s clear a major misconception.
Digital footprint ≠ influencer marketing

This book—and this article—are not about:

• posting daily on LinkedIn

• chasing followers

• building a personal brand aesthetic

• optimizing for virality

For software engineers, digital footprint is closer to engineering documentation.
It’s about:

• clarity over charisma

• consistency over volume

• signal over noise

You don’t need to be loud.
You need to be legible.

Why most engineers stay invisible online

Many engineers resist working on their online presence for valid reasons:

• “I don’t like self-promotion.”

• “I’m not good at writing.”

• “I don’t have anything unique to say.”

• “My work speaks for itself.”

The problem isn’t mindset—it’s framing.

Your online presence isn’t a promotion.
It’s context.

Just like clean code helps the next engineer understand a system, a clear digital footprint helps others understand you.

How engineers actually get noticed online

Let’s be practical.

Most opportunities don’t come from viral posts.
They come from searchability and trust.

Common entry points:

• A recruiter scanning your GitHub

• A hiring manager reading one technical article

• A founder checking your LinkedIn before a call

• A developer discovering your open-source project

Small, consistent signals compound.

One good README.
One thoughtful blog post.
One well-structured portfolio.

Over time, these create credibility.

Why I wrote Digital Footprint for Software Engineers

I wrote this book after years of:

• reviewing developer profiles

• mentoring engineers

• participating in open source

• interviewing and being interviewed

I noticed a pattern.

Highly skilled engineers were often overlooked—not because of lack of talent, but because their work wasn’t visible or discoverable.

Meanwhile, engineers with modest skills but clear documentation and public signals were getting more opportunities.

This book exists to close that gap.

What makes this book different from other career books

There are many career and personal branding books.

Most of them:

• are generic

• focus on motivation

• target creators, not engineers

Digital Footprint for Software Engineers is different.

It is:

• written by an engineer, for engineers

• grounded in real workflows

• focused on long-term signal, not short-term growth

• opinionated, but practical

It treats your online presence as a system you maintain, not a personality you perform.

What the book covers

The book breaks down the digital footprint into practical, actionable components:

• GitHub for software engineers: How to write meaningful READMEs, choose which projects to showcase, and signal technical depth rather than just "green square" activity.

• LinkedIn for developers: Using LinkedIn as a professional index and writing summaries that reflect engineering thinking, without falling into the trap of performative content.

• Blogging and technical writing: How to write to clarify your own thinking, what to write about even if you aren't an "expert," and how writing acts as a compounding asset.

• Portfolios and personal websites: What actually matters in an engineering portfolio, the common mistakes to avoid, and how to keep it simple and credible.

• Open source and community: Prioritizing contribution over popularity, maintaining sustainable involvement, and the art of learning in public without oversharing.

Who should read this book?

This book is written for:

• Computer science students preparing to enter the industry.

• Early-career software engineers looking to establish themselves.

• Senior engineers who have kept their heads down and want to expand their reach.

• Tech leads and backend engineers.

• Any developer seeking a long-term career leverage.

If you write code for a living, this book is relevant to you.

Digital footprint as a long-term investment

A digital footprint isn’t built overnight.

It compounds like:

• good code

• clean architecture

• thoughtful documentation

One repo at a time.
One article at a time.
One improvement at a time.

The goal isn’t visibility for visibility’s sake.
The goal is career resilience.

Your Work Deserves Visibility

If someone Googles your name today, what story does the internet tell?

Digital Footprint for Software Engineers helps you design that story—intentionally, honestly, and sustainably.

Get your copy today → Buy now on Amazon.

A Small Giveaway

To celebrate the launch, I’m giving away a few copies of the book as a small thank-you to the community 🤍

If this article resonated with you, drop a comment or reach out—I’ll randomly pick a few readers to receive a copy.

You can also join the giveaway by upvoting the launch and sharing your thoughts on Peerlist:

👉 View on Peerlist Launchpad

Grateful for all the love and support—it truly means a lot 🙏

Final thoughts

Your digital footprint already exists.
The only decision is whether:

• you design it intentionally

• or let it evolve randomly

Digital Footprint for Software Engineers is my attempt to help engineers take control of that narrative—quietly, honestly, and sustainably.

You don’t need to become someone else.
You just need to make your work visible.

❤️ A Heartfelt Thanks to Postman

Postman was my home for a solid 4.5 years. It was there that I cut my teeth in the tech world. Working on projects like Interceptor and Integrations was a blast. I learned so much about building products, problem-solving, and collaborating with teams. Looking back, I realize that those experiences were the perfect training ground for what was to come at Novo. Thank you, Postman, for preparing me for this exciting new chapter.

🤞 The Novo Interview Adventure

Landing a job at Novo was no easy feat and it all started with an email from Ajar—that’s how I first discovered Novo. From there, things took off with a whirlwind of interviews, and I must say, it was a mix of excitement and nerves the whole way through.

The process began with the technical conceptual round, where I showcased my understanding of databases, JavaScript, and Node.js internals. Then came the coding round, where I tackled JavaScript problems that tested my skills and adaptability. Finally, the system design round had me laying out complex architectures and solutions—a challenging yet exhilarating experience. Each step felt like a thorough test of my abilities and fit for the role.

Looking back, I'm so grateful to those who supported me throughout this process. A huge thank you to recruiters Viraj and Sithara, and my interviewers Maulik, Neha, and Saksham—you all made the interview process smooth.

🏦 From SaaS to Fintech: The Big Transition

Switching gears from SaaS to fintech was a big deal. It was like trading in my sneakers for a suit (kind of). Totally different ballgame! The learning curve was steep, but with a bit of grit and the support of my new team, I adapted quickly. Embracing the nuances of neobanking was both thrilling and demanding, and I found myself diving into new concepts and technologies. Each challenge has been an opportunity to grow and refine my skills. I had to learn a ton of new stuff, like coding in Go and figuring out how money moves around. It was tough but rewarding.

✨ The Beginning of a New Chapter

I still remember my first days at Novo—feeling a mix of excitement and nerves that comes with starting something new. Those first few weeks were a whirlwind! I was super excited but also a bit nervous. I jumped right into this new world of handling big batches of money movement through NACHA file processing. It was intense, but I loved it.

Switching from building websites to moving money was a big change and a steep learning curve. But with the team's support, I picked it up quickly. Big shoutout to Pratyoosh and Devang for being there every step of the way, and a special thanks to Hannan, Hemang, Akash, Lavkesh, and Mohit for patiently explaining all the nuances of money movement to me.

🎉 A Year of Building at Novo: Achievements That Matter

This first year at Novo has been all about building systems to help banks move money, and it's been an exciting challenge! My main focus has been on creating systems that handle inbound and outbound NACHA files, making it easy for banks to transfer money securely and smoothly.

I've been designing and scaling microservices that power our banking platform. These systems make sure money transfers happen without a hitch through the ACH (Automated Clearing House) network, helping people and small businesses make transactions quickly and reliably.

It's been a year full of solving fintech problems, learning a ton, and making a real difference in how banking works.

🌟 Living the Novo Vibe

It's not just about the work—it's the people that make Novo amazing. The team here feels more like family, always bouncing ideas around and supporting each other. That's what makes Novo truly special.

Plus, the tech we work with is awesome—Node.js, Go, AWS, GraphQL, Kafka—it feels like playing with the coolest tools. I've also had the chance to visit our offices in Ahmedabad and Gurgaon, which was a blast. When we're not coding, we're out having fun—office parties, sports, you name it. It's the perfect balance of working hard and playing hard.

What I love about being part of this team:

• Cutting-Edge Tech: Working with Node.js, Go, AWS, GraphQL, and Kafka keeps me on the front line of innovation.

• Team Spirit: The team is like family—collaborative and supportive, making every challenge easier.

• Travel and Culture: Traveling to different offices and connecting with the teams is a highlight, plus the regular outings keep things fun.

• Flexibility and Environment: Flexible hours, a small, friendly office, and activities like arts, crafts, badminton, and cricket make every day enjoyable.

🤝 Embracing Novo’s Core Values

Novo’s values aren’t just words on a wall—they’re part of everything we do. When things get tough, like when I dealt with P0 production issues, I saw it as a chance to learn and improve. It's all about "winning or learning" right?

Working with different teams across the globe has been incredible. We’re like one big, united family, always there to support each other. Novo’s core values have guided me throughout this year:

• Win or Learn: I’ve embraced challenges as opportunities to grow and improve. Not every piece of code I wrote was perfect—bugs happened, but each one taught me valuable lessons and made me a better developer. I’m a big believer in "fail fast, learn faster." Every bug is just another opportunity to get better.

• Unique and United: Building strong relationships with teams across time zones has been a highlight, and the collaborative vibe here keeps me inspired.

• Operate Like an Owner: I’ve taken full ownership of every project, ensuring not just task completion but full accountability for the outcome. This means being proactive, anticipating challenges, and delivering reliable solutions. Even after launch, I stay engaged—monitoring, responding to issues and looking for ways to improve.

🔮 Novo Tech Meetup

With the amazing support of Sithara, Aditya, and Sneha, I had the chance to organize Novo's very first tech meetup—and it was a huge success! The Fireside Chat on FinTech and GenAI stole the show, drawing in over 100 attendees. The energy in the room was incredible, and it felt great to bring people together around these cutting-edge topics. I'm already looking forward to organizing more meetups soon!

🚀 Looking Forward

As I celebrate this one-year milestone, I am filled with gratitude for the opportunities and experiences I've had. The growth, learning, and relationships I’ve built at Novo have been remarkable. I’m excited for the future and eager to continue contributing to Novo’s success.

Thank you to everyone at Novo for being part of this journey. Here’s to many more years of growth, collaboration, and achievement!

I'm glad to have you here, and I'd love to stay connected. You can connect with me on LinkedIn, follow my journey on Twitter, or visit my website at vinitshahdeo.com. Let's keep the conversation going! ✨

A personal website is crucial for showcasing your work, building your brand, and connecting with like-minded professionals. It’s your digital home, telling your story and highlighting your unique skills. And let’s not forget—GitHub has become every developer's homepage, the perfect place to share and collaborate on code. Here's a sneak peek at my GitHub Profile README, where you can showcase your work, interests, and achievements to the GitHub community.

While GitHub is great, having your portfolio on a personal domain gives you a stronger online presence. You don't want to disappoint anyone when they Google you. I'm excited to share that I've finally put together my portfolio! 🎉 The best part? I've made it available as an Astro template. Check it out on GitHub or see the demo at vinitshahdeo.com.

Introducing the Stellar Astro Dev Portfolio Template 🚀

Astro is a JavaScript web framework ideal for building fast, content-focused websites. It was launched in 2021 and has quickly gained popularity among web developers because it lets you use pre-built themes to set up a website in no time.

I built my website and decided to share it as an open-source Astro template. It's a sleek, modern, highly customizable portfolio showcasing your work, skills, and featured articles. Built with Astro and Tailwind CSS, this template is minimalistic and optimized for performance and SEO.

Creating a portfolio that stands out can be tough. This template makes it easy by giving you a solid starting point to quickly customize to show off your personal style and professional achievements.

Key Features ✨

This template is packed with features to help you create an outstanding portfolio:

• 📱 Fully Responsive: Optimized for all screen sizes, ensuring a seamless user experience across devices.

• ⚡ Fast and SEO Optimized: Built for speed and search engine visibility, with comprehensive Open Graph meta tags for better social media sharing.

• 🎨 Fully Customizable: Tailor the template to match your style and requirements effortlessly.

• 📄 Comprehensive Pages: Pre-built pages include Home, About, Now, and Featured.

• 🚀 Self-Host Ready: Easily deployable on platforms like Netlify or Vercel.

• 📊 Google Analytics Integration: Simple setup for insightful analytics.

• 🔍 Automated SEO Tools: Automatic generation of robots.txt and Sitemap for better search engine indexing and navigation.

Perfect Lighthouse Score 🔥

This portfolio is designed to be performant and accessible, achieving a perfect score on Lighthouse. Check out the Lighthouse Report.

Build Your Portfolio with Astro ⚡

Creating your personal website has never been easier or more fun. With the Stellar Astro Dev Portfolio Template, you can quickly build a professional and impressive online presence. It is designed for search engines and performance. For example, you can google vinit shahdeo portfolio and it will be indexed there.

• Check it out on GitHub; the README has everything you need!

• Preview the demo: vinitshahdeo.com

• This is also available as an Astro theme.

If you enjoyed this template, please consider giving it a star on GitHub. You can also help spread the word by sharing the blog post on 𝕏 (Twitter). Your support means a lot to me and inspires me to keep building!

From an intern to Software Engineer II at Postman

My journey at Postman started as an eager intern, full of enthusiasm and a thirst for knowledge. From day one, I was captivated by the company's API-First mission and dedication to making API development simpler, faster, and more effective. As I transition from being an intern to a Software Engineer II, I look back at my accomplishments with a sense of pride and gratitude.

Building Postman Interceptor: A Browser Companion to Enhance Your Postman Desktop App Experience

One of my most significant contributions during my time at Postman was building the interceptor, a tool that captures browser cookies and requests. This feature not only enhanced the API testing workflows but also streamlined the debugging process for countless developers. Witnessing the impact of my work on the developer community was truly fulfilling.

Furthermore, being a part of the transition phase when Postman expanded from a desktop app to a web platform was a defining moment in my journey here. Witnessing this transformation firsthand and contributing to the creation of the Postman web platform has been both challenging and rewarding. The transition brought about incredible possibilities and opened up new avenues for the community to leverage Postman's power from any device, anywhere.

Extending API Workflows with Postman Integrations

Another highlight of my journey was building and scaling integrations that allowed developers to seamlessly connect their API workflows with various tools and services across different categories, including CI/CD, Code Repositories, APMs, and API Gateways. These integrations were instrumental in enhancing collaboration and productivity, automatically sharing data between Postman and other tools crucial for API development. Additionally, syncing collections and API definitions to a source control repository brought greater efficiency to our workflows. Sending monitor alerts to monitoring services and team messaging apps, and viewing continuous integration (CI) builds from within Postman further simplified developers' lives. Shivani Maheshwari, my reporting manager for the integrations project, deserves special gratitude. Her support, guidance, and encouragement helped me navigate challenges and contribute effectively.

Ankit Jaggi, your collaboration and dedication to building and scaling API gateway integrations were invaluable. Our collective efforts in this area have enriched the Postman ecosystem and empowered developers worldwide.

Moreover, I had the privilege of working on the API Observability product, a recent project with tons of experiments and learning. Bringing insights into Postman through this product aimed to empower developers with a deeper understanding of their APIs, and I'm grateful to have played a part in its ideation and development.

Google Summer of Code at Postman

Being part of the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program not once, but twice, was a cherished experience. I not only contributed to the GSoC program's success but also had the privilege of mentoring talented students and passing on the knowledge and experience that I gained at Postman. It was incredibly rewarding to see these students thrive and make a positive impact on the open-source community. In 2021, I mentored a project called AsyncDiff, comparing two AsyncAPI documents to generate a diff, aiding in review processes and changelogs. Now, in 2023, I'm working on the Open API Web Search project, revolutionizing API discovery by simplifying access to Swagger and OpenAPI definitions from lesser-known sources on the open web.

Gratitude and Looking Ahead

Throughout my time at Postman, I had the opportunity to meet remarkable individuals who have become not only colleagues but also friends. Working closely with co-founder Abhijit Kane was an honor, and his mentorship has shaped me both professionally and personally. His visionary leadership has been an inspiration to me and many others. Working alongside him has been an honor and a source of immense inspiration.

Postman has been more than just a workplace for me; it has been a stepping stone in my career. As I joined as an intern, little did I know that this experience would shape me into the professional I am today. The knowledge, skills, and confidence I have gained during my time here have been invaluable assets that I will carry with me throughout my career.

As my role extended beyond coding, I had the privilege of mentoring L1 engineers. This experience has been profoundly rewarding, watching these individuals grow in their skills and confidence. Nishant, Anukriti, Aditi, Subham, and Saurav, witnessing your growth and impact on the organization has been incredibly fulfilling. Your enthusiasm and dedication are truly inspiring. The camaraderie within the team has made each day at Postman a joyous one, where learning and laughter go hand in hand.

During my time at Postman, I have seen the user base grow from 5 million to an amazing 20 million users. This exponential growth is a testament to the organization's dedication to delivering cutting-edge products that cater to the needs of developers worldwide. It has been awe-inspiring to be part of a team that is revolutionizing the way developers approach API development. Throughout my time at Postman, I had the opportunity to meet remarkable individuals who have become not only colleagues but also friends. To my dear colleagues—Alekhya, Shrey, Atishay, and Abhiram—our companionship and collective efforts made every day at Postman enjoyable and fulfilling. Your teamwork and friendship have been a constant motivator. Thank you all for making my time at Postman truly exceptional.

And to all the other colleagues who contributed to my journey at Postman—Srinivas, Harsh, and many more—thank you for creating such a vibrant and supportive work environment. Your presence enriched my experience at Postman in ways I can't put into words.

In conclusion, my time at Postman has been nothing short of extraordinary. The experiences, opportunities, and friendships I have gained here will forever hold a special place in my heart. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone at Postman – the visionaries, the developers, the support teams, and each member of this fantastic community. Together, we have built something truly remarkable.

As I step into the next phase of my journey, I carry with me the valuable lessons learned at Postman, the memories cherished, and the unwavering passion for creating a positive impact in the world of software development.

Thank you, Postman, for an unforgettable chapter in my life. I hope that our paths may cross again in the future.

Until we meet again,
Vinit Shahdeo — E130

"Your Network is Your Net Worth!" — A Book by Porter Gale.

It emphasizes the importance of protecting our online identity—keep reading, and you'll discover the harsh realities of cybercrime and its impact on individuals through our personal experience.

🔒 The Incident and The Unforeseen Consequences

It all started when she received what appeared to be a legitimate message from a recruiter on LinkedIn. Without suspecting any foul play, she clicked on a drive link that was shared, unknowingly triggering an executable file that ran on her system. This single moment of trust proved costly, leading to devastating consequences. Sharmishtha immediately reported the fraudulent account, but the damage had already been done. She found herself forcibly logged out of her LinkedIn account, with the attacker having changed her email ID. It became clear that the hacker had taken advantage of the initial compromise to gain control of her account, scamming others using her profile.

🔐 Safeguarding Sharmishtha's Compromised LinkedIn Account

As soon as Sharmi discovered the compromise, she reached out to me for help. Together, we took immediate action. First, we disconnected her device from the internet, cutting off the attacker's access. Simultaneously, we tweeted to LinkedIn's support account, seeking their assistance in recovering her compromised account. Thankfully, LinkedIn support acted promptly and temporarily suspended the account, preventing the attacker from further exploiting it.

🛡️ Strengthening Security Measures

Recognizing the importance of her digital presence, we emphasized the need for proactive measures. Advising her on safeguarding her privacy, we recommended covering her laptop's camera, changing passwords for all accounts, and enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) as an extra layer of defense against unauthorized access. Understanding the risks posed by saved passwords, we precisely removed them from her browser, particularly in Google Chrome. Additionally, we asked her to temporarily remove any sensitive documents from her laptop.

🚨 Assessing the Threat

We suspected the presence of a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) or keylogger and conducted a thorough investigation. Together with my trusted friend Shashank, a skilled security researcher, we carefully analyzed the suspicious file using tools like VirusTotal. Surprisingly, even with Microsoft Defender installed on her laptop, it failed to detect the virus, adding another layer of complexity to the attack.

A Remote Access Trojan (RAT) is a type of malware that grants unauthorized individuals remote access and control over an infected system. This gives attackers the ability to monitor activities, capture sensitive information, and carry out malicious actions without the victim's knowledge. In this case, if the executed file was a RAT, it could potentially access all of her files and folders, breaching personal data.

On the other hand, a keylogger is malicious software or hardware that records every keystroke on a compromised system. This means that passwords, usernames, and other sensitive information entered by the victim can be captured and sent to the attacker. The consequences of a keylogger are severe, including compromised personal data, identity theft, financial loss, and other cybercrimes. Given the potential risks, we recommended that she temporarily block her net banking and credit cards, ensuring we didn't underestimate the capabilities of the attacker.

🚧 Rebuilding Trust

To ensure a fresh start and regain control, we decided to reset Sharmishtha's laptop to its factory settings. This thorough process eliminated any remnants of malware or unauthorized access, providing a clean slate. Finally, we restored her device and reinforced security measures by installing reputable antivirus software, regularly updating software and applications, and maintaining a vigilant approach to identifying and addressing potential vulnerabilities.

Thankfully, LinkedIn successfully recovered Sharmishtha's account after she provided the necessary government ID proofs for verification. The process took three days, during which we anxiously awaited the outcome. My heartfelt thanks to Ishika and Kartikey for their assistance in amplifying our request to LinkedIn support. Finally, receiving the news of her account restoration was a moment of relief and celebration. We celebrated our collaborative efforts and resilience with a house party hosted by our close friend, Ratnesh, who is like a brother to me. He has been there for me since the day I met him! 🎉

Her LinkedIn account is recovered—in/sharmishtha-dash—and the picture below captures us in a celebratory mood, waiting for food to be served before we enjoy the party together!

🔑 Key Takeaways for Enhanced Online Security

Throughout this challenging journey, the expertise and unwavering support of my friend Shashank, a seasoned security researcher, proved invaluable. His presence added an extra layer of trust and collective mitigation steps to our efforts. Together, we established a dedicated space, working tirelessly side by side, leveraging our knowledge and skill sets to tackle the attack head-on.

Below are key learnings and steps to safeguard yourself:

1. Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Your passwords aren't good enough—enable 2FA to add an extra layer of security to your online accounts. Whether it's for Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, or others, 2FA adds an extra barrier against unauthorized access.

2. Exercise Caution with Links: Be skeptical of suspicious or unsolicited links, especially from unknown sources. Think twice before clicking on them to avoid potential risks or phishing attempts.

3. Beware of Executable Files: Avoid opening or executing any file unless you can verify its legitimacy and source. Scan it on the VirusTotal and share them with the security community.

4. Regularly Update and Change Passwords: Protect your accounts by regularly updating and changing passwords. Avoid reusing passwords across multiple platforms for added security.

5. Use Password Managers: Consider using reputable password managers like 1Password to generate and securely store complex, unique passwords, ensuring strong protection for your accounts.

6. Keep Your Software Up to Date: Stay proactive in safeguarding your devices by regularly updating your operating system, applications, and antivirus software. Patching vulnerabilities is crucial in maintaining a secure digital environment.

7. Be Mindful of Personal Information Sharing: Avoid sharing sensitive personal information on public platforms or with unknown individuals to prevent potential misuse.

8. Educate Yourself about Cybersecurity Best Practices: Stay up-to-date with the latest cybersecurity trends, threats, and best practices. Educate yourself on reliable sources like cybersecurity-insiders to enhance your knowledge and protect yourself from evolving risks.

Passwords aren't good enough—enable 2FA!

In conclusion, our journey highlights the alarming reality of cybercrime and the importance of taking immediate action. Let us strengthen our defenses, share knowledge, and unite in creating a safer online environment. Remember, cybersecurity is a collective responsibility, and by staying proactive and informed, we can protect ourselves and others from the dangers of cyber threats.

Don't be lazy—enable 2FA across all your accounts and regularly update your passwords. Taking these simple but powerful steps is the least we can do to safeguard ourselves against such attacks.

Peerlist: More Than Just Another Networking Platform

Founded by a visionary duo comprising Yogini, a highly talented developer, and Aakash, an innovative designer, Peerlist is not just another run-of-the-mill networking platform. It is a carefully crafted ecosystem that brings together talented individuals from diverse backgrounds, with robust and verified work profiles that speak volumes about their expertise and achievements.

A Journey From the Beginning: Witnessing Peerlist's Rise 💚

I've had the pleasure of following the Peerlist journey since its inception. From the early days when Yogini and Aakash were laying the foundation for this incredible platform, I've witnessed remarkable growth in empowering professionals worldwide. And as a gesture of support, I even contributed to the Peerlist by creating a README badge, which has now become an integral part of the platform.

From Appreciation to Connection: Peerlist's Genuine Community Spirit

Imagine my surprise when the Peerlist team sent me an adorable Tee as a token of appreciation for my contribution. It's little gestures like these that demonstrate their genuine appreciation for their community members and their commitment to fostering a sense of belonging.

Crafting a Professional Profile That Truly Speaks to You

So, what exactly makes Peerlist so special? First and foremost, it's a refreshing alternative to mainstream professional networks like LinkedIn. Peerlist provides a credible, trustworthy space for professionals to showcase their work, connect with like-minded individuals, and explore exciting career opportunities. It's a platform that focuses on quality rather than quantity, allowing you to create a meaningful proof-of-work profile that truly reflects your skills and accomplishments.

Amplify Your Digital Footprint with Peerlist

In today's digital age, your online presence is crucial. With Peerlist, your professional profile gains visibility beyond the platform itself. When I searched for my name on Google, to my surprise, my Peerlist profile appeared in the search results. This demonstrates the platform's commitment to ensuring that your professional presence reaches a wider audience, including potential employers, clients, and collaborators.

Integration Made Effortless: Your Professional Journey in One Place

Peerlist seamlessly integrates with a multitude of platforms and tools to streamline your professional journey. Showcase your GitHub contributions, share your YouTube videos, link your blogs from Medium, Dev.to, and Hashnode, and proudly display your Product Hunt achievements. It's like having an all-in-one online resume that evolves with you, representing your growth and accomplishments as a professional. Say goodbye to traditional resumes and dull profiles. With Peerlist, you can curate a comprehensive profile that truly represents who you are and what you bring to the table.

Join Peerlist Today and Unleash Your Full Potential

But it's not just about individual success on Peerlist; it's about becoming connections peers and fostering a thriving community. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to connect with peers who share my passion and drive. The platform's intuitive interface and thoughtful features make it a breeze to engage with others, exchange ideas, and collaborate on exciting projects. Peerlist is more than just a networking platform; it's a supportive ecosystem where professionals come together to lift each other and achieve greatness.

Peerlist is better with friends and peers! 💚

So, if you're ready to unlock your full professional potential, I invite you to join Peerlist today. Click here to create your account. Trust me; you won't regret it!

And once you're on Peerlist, let's connect! I'm eager to expand my network, explore endless possibilities, and witness the impact we can create together. Remember, Peerlist is more than just a professional network; it's a gateway to a world of opportunities, connections, and growth. Together, let's redefine what it means to succeed in our careers and create a community that thrives on collaboration and support. I'm excited to witness the boundless possibilities that lie ahead for the Peerlist team, especially after the recent unveiling of their latest endeavor - Project Spotlight.

Join Peerlist today and embark on a journey of professional excellence! Find me on Peerlist at peerlist.io/vinitshahdeo and let's make our mark in the world of professional networking! 💚

As I interacted with people—be it our clients, my tech-savvy friends, attendees at meetups, or even random dudes sipping coffee and discussing Postman in cafes—I found that eight out of ten were simply using Postman as just another API client. This realization prompted me to tweet a thread highlighting some of the cool features of Postman, which quickly gained significant traction. As a result, I decided to log it into my blog.

Beyond Basics: Enhancing Your Postman Experience with 10 Features 💪

Do you use Postman just as a REST API client? Believe me, you're missing out on a lot!

It's an API platform that simplifies each phase of the API lifecycle and streamlines collaboration so you can create better APIs—faster.

I'm here to share 10 features that you might not know about!

[1] Support for multiple protocols✨

In the initial days, Postman just understands HTTP but Postman users now enjoy the interoperability of using an API platform that also understands WebSockets, Socket.IO, GraphQL, and gRPC. The links below explain them in detail:

• Postman now supports gRPC

• Postman now supports WebSocket APIs

• Postman now supports Socket.io

• Postman v7.2 supports GraphQL

[2] Capture cookies and requests 📡

Out of all the features in Postman, this one holds a special place in my heart as I had the opportunity to build it from scratch. With this feature, you can inspect the actual HTTP and HTTPS request traffic of your application. Postman's built-in proxy and Interceptor offer a simple yet effective way to capture network traffic, including requests, responses, and cookies.

• Postman Interceptor helps you extend browser workflows, you can sync your browser cookies and requests directly into Postman. You can learn more here.

• The Postman app's proxy allows you to inspect HTTP communication going to and from a phone. You can learn more here.

[3] Simulate API endpoints with a mock server 💻

Believe me, this feature will enable your frontend colleagues to proceed with building their features without having to wait for you to provide them with the functional API. With Postman, you can make requests that return mock data defined within the tool if you don't have a production-ready API or if you prefer not to run your requests against real data just yet.

Learn more: Design and Mock APIs with Postman

[4] Publish your APIs 📝

Are you tired of endlessly searching for the right APIs to work with? Look no further than Postman's API Network - a vast collection of APIs, workspaces, and collections, contributed by developers from all around the globe. With Postman, generating documentation for your API or collection is a breeze, and you can easily make it available to anyone with a web browser. Plus, you can browse, explore, and share APIs with ease, making the development process faster and smoother than ever before. Discover the power of Postman at postman.com/explore and streamline your API workflow today!

[5] Extend your API workflows beyond Postman 🛠️

Elevate your API-first practices to new heights with Postman's seamless integration into your software development pipeline. By easily integrating with essential tools and services such as source code repositories, CI/CD systems, API Gateways, and APMs, you can streamline your API workflows and bring your development process to the next level.

• Source code repositories: Integrate with services like GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure DevOps. Learn more about integrating with repositories in this blog post.

• CI/CD: Postman supports integrations with CI/CD tools like CircleCI, TravisCI, Bitbucket pipelines, etc. Read the docs

• API Gateways: Stay on top of your API deployments in Postman by connecting to an API gateway like AWS API Gateway and Apigee X.

• APM: Postman supports multiple integrations to help you monitor your APIs seamlessly. Integrate with the tools like New Relic, Datadog, etc.

Explore available integrations to power up your API workflows and streamline your development process like never before. As a member of the Integrations team, I am dedicated to helping our users unlock new possibilities with Postman and achieve more in less time. If you don't find what you're looking for in our list, kindly request it here!

[6] Use version control🍴

Postman's version control features allow you to collaborate asynchronously. You can fork a collection or environment, make updates to the fork, create a pull request, and merge your changes into the parent element. Check out this blog to learn more.

[7] Code generator library 🧑‍💻

Unlock the full potential of your API collections with Postman's powerful code generator module. With just a few clicks, you can generate client code for your collections in a wide range of popular programming languages, including Java, Python, JavaScript, and more.

What's even better? The code generator module is an open-source project, meaning you can easily contribute to the project and add support for new languages or frameworks. Contribute here👇

[8] Token scanner 🔒

Protecting your API endpoints and authentication tokens is crucial in today's security landscape. With Postman's powerful scanning tools, you can easily scan your public workspaces, collections, environments, and documentation to identify any potential vulnerabilities and ensure that your tokens are properly secured. You can learn about it here.

[9] Use an external Git repository 🔁

Postman offers Git workflows to keep your API development in sync with your code changes. With Git integration, you can connect your Postman API with popular version control systems like GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, GitLab Self-Managed, or Azure DevOps. This allows you to sync your API specifications and collections with your repo, enabling you to manage and track changes to your API with ease. Joyce has written a detailed blog on this, which you can check out for more information.

[10] Import from anywhere ⬇️

Did you know that you can easily import all your APIs from your code repositories or API Gateways with just a few clicks? It's true! Postman makes it simple to import collections and API specifications directly into the platform from a file, link, code repository, or API Gateway. Want to learn more about how to do this? Check out the documentation.

Master Postman Like a Pro 🔥

The API ecosystem is rapidly evolving, and Postman is a game-changer for developers who want to create better APIs faster. In this blog, I discussed some of the handpicked features of Postman, such as code generators, integrations, version control, and much more. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. You can find many other useful features on Postman's public workspace or official blog.

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced Postman user, there's always something new to learn. And if you're ready to take your Postman skills to the next level, explore the Postman Learning Center, where you'll find everything from beginner tutorials to advanced courses. So, what are you waiting for? Start mastering Postman like a pro today and unleash the power of API-first development.

Let me know in the comments what your favorite Postman features are, and let's work towards the API-first world! Catch me on Twitter (@vinit_shahdeo) to keep the conversation going.

Spread the word by retweeting this thread to help your friends discover the cool features of Postman.

Here's how it works:

To get started, create your AI and describe its role, such as "An AI designed to browse the web to discover the next upcoming event and invent a unique and original recipe".

Next, enter goals for your AI:

1. Invent an original and out-of-the-box recipe to suit a current event, such as Easter.

2. Save the resulting recipe to the file.

3. Shutdown upon achieving your goal.

Then simply let it run, and watch as it works to achieve the objectives you've set.

👀 Check the demo here.

Features of Auto-GPT 🚀

🌐 Internet access for searches and information gathering

Auto-GPT is equipped with internet access, allowing it to search for and gather information from various websites and sources.

💾 Long-Term and Short-Term memory management

Like the human brain, Auto-GPT has both long-term and short-term memory. The program is designed to remember important details, such as financial projections over extended periods. At the same time, it also has short-term memory to keep track of current projects and tasks. This memory management feature is critical to the program's ability to manage businesses effectively and efficiently.

🧠 GPT-4 instances for text generation

Auto-GPT utilizes GPT-4, a powerful language model by OpenAI, for text generation. The use of GPT-4 allows for greater accuracy and precision in text generation, which is essential for businesses that want to maintain a professional image.

🔗 Access to popular websites and platforms

In addition to internet access, Auto-GPT also has access to popular websites and platforms. This feature is important for Auto-GPT's ability as it allows the program to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and news in various industries.

🗃️ File storage and summarization with GPT-3.5

Auto-GPT also has file storage and summarization capabilities. This means that it can store and organize important documents in an organized manner. Additionally, the program utilizes GPT-3.5 for summarization, allowing it to quickly and accurately summarize long documents into easily digestible summaries. This feature is particularly useful for businesses that need to quickly extract key information from large volumes of data.

Experiment with Auto-GPT

While Auto-GPT is still in its experimental stages, it provides a tantalizing glimpse into the potential of GPT-4 and other advanced language models. The ability to automate tasks, generate unique content, and access vast amounts of data with ease could revolutionize the way businesses operate and compete in today's fast-paced world. So, while we may not yet know exactly how the future of AI-powered business management will unfold, one thing is for sure — Auto-GPT has shown us just how limitless the possibilities can be. It will be exciting to see how it evolves.

🚀 Join the experiment: Torantulino/Auto-GPT.

Hello Community!

Postman has returned to GSoC as a mentoring org, and — given the project gets selected — I will be mentoring the OpenAPI Web Search (OAWS) project that makes finding Swagger & OpenAPI definitions easier and faster! In this blog post, I will talk about the same.

Looking forward to engaging with the developers from the API-first world for a happy summer of coding! ❤️

Are you tired of sifting through endless documentation and struggling to find the Swagger or OpenAPI definitions you need for your project? Keep reading to learn more about how are we going to simplify your workflow and boost your productivity.

As web search technology advances and more APIs are created, developers must have access to the best tools available. There should be a fast and reliable way to find Swagger/OpenAPI definitions quickly and easily. If you're not familiar with Swagger and OpenAPI, it's a language-agnostic specification for describing RESTful APIs. The API definition describes the endpoints, parameters, and responses for each operation in the API. It's a valuable resource for developers who are building integrations with third-party APIs.

In addition to being able to search across public APIs with ease, developers in the API-first world should have access to the endless information buried in the sea of APIs. With similar goals, the Postman Open Technologies team manages a knowledge base dedicated to mining and extracting knowledge from the API universe. To expand the current knowledge base, we came up with the idea of OpenAPI Web Search—a project for Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2023.

OpenAPI Web Search: Revolutionizing the Way Developers find API Definitions 🚀

OpenAPI Web Search (OAWS) project is all about building a search engine for finding Swagger and OpenAPI definitions on the open web—mostly from lesser-known sources. OAWS indexes APIs from various public sources and makes them searchable by keyword, provider, and other metadata. This will let you say goodbye to the frustration of sifting through endless documentation and hello to streamlined efficiency in finding APIs for your use cases.

The dataset powering OAWS can later be used to analyze the specifications to obtain insights into some of the practices common among APIs.

➥ Learn more.

Become a GSoC contributor

If you're interested in contributing to OpenAPI Web Search (OAWS), get started here.

• Here's the official repository for OpenAPI Web Search.

• Check out a good first issue.

• Find detailed instructions for submitting the proposal here.

• Take a look at this—a TL;DR for GSoC contributors.

Join Postman at GSoC'23

You can also look into other ideas and join Postman at GSoC'23. I'm looking forward to engaging with you for a happy summer of coding! Kindly submit your proposal by April 4, 2023, at 11:00 am (PDT) / 11:30 pm (IST).

I am again elated to share that I had the privilege of being recognized as a GitHub Star for the second time in a row. Being a GitHub Star is a wholesome journey from just creating an account on GitHub to getting selected as a GitHub Star.

And, getting a glimpse of some of those journeys can help all aspiring people become the best version of themselves and be recognized as a GitHub Star. Hence, I've stuffed this article with the stories of 10 GitHub Stars so that you may relate to your aura and get a sense of what's cooking in the GitHub Star's pot and know what you may learn from them all.

The GitHub Star Program symbolizes those who go above and beyond, elevating those who inspire and educate your communities. It is a single-source platform for all open-source admirers who are transforming the tech industry as a single-shared globe of source code that anyone can review, alter, and improve and is modifying technologies incredibly.

According to my fellow GitHub Stars, open-source is something that gives developers,

Freedom!
Freedom to share & collaborate!
Common grounds to cooperate!
Inspiration to innovate!
Spreading joy and bringing people together as one!
To redefine the developer experience for everyone!

What excites GitHub Stars most about open-source?

Open source allows people to collaborate and advance the commons with developers from all over the world, resulting in the creation of something that can be used by anybody, anywhere, at any time without restrictions or expiration.

Eddie Jaoude says, open-source provides the opportunity to learn in public with the community, where one can implement any concept and learn about other people's ideas, all while sharing your own individuality!

Having access to a large number of projects allows you to see how great things are built behind the scenes, but it doesn't end there; anyone can contribute to these projects whenever they can or need to. It provides a one-stop-shop for showcasing their technical talents.

Open source, in the words of Alex Ellis: "Open source began as a means of improving developer tooling and scratching my own itch, but it has now opened up a whole new world to me. On one hand, I have strong relationships with the communities that surround my open source projects, and I like watching them add to and improve upon my initial concepts. On the other hand, I now consider dozens of creators and maintainers to be friends with whom I share a common journey."

According to Liran Tal, open-source software is more than just code, it's a philosophy and a movement that strives to openly share work so that everyone can benefit from it.

Expeditions of GitHub Stars ⭐

The following is a list of 10 GitHub Stars' journeys as told by them. I really hope you enjoy reading their "GitHub" way of life.

Gina Häußge

She has been developing a web interface for consumer 3D printers since late 2012. OctoPrint is a Project that has been totally crowdfunded since 2016. She made a lot of stuff on the side, but OctoPrint, according to her, was her biggest and longest-running project, which she's been maintaining since then and for which she was nominated. She invested a lot of time not only maintaining the project, but also creating an ecosystem and a community around it, teaching, enabling, and so on. That seemed to match what GitHub was looking for in its stars.

Nikita Sobolev

Even after achieving the status of GitHub Star, He is a down-to-earth person who believes that there are far more talented developers out there and simply enjoys his work and intends to continue doing so. According to his own words - "Right now, I can't imagine my life without it. Find your own ways to express yourself, do what drives you. And be pragmatic!" He had created the most stringent and opinionated Python linter ever and is currently working on adding typed functional programming to Python.

Eddie Jaoude

He has been utilizing GitHub since the beginning of his career and has now established himself as a GitHub Star. For EddieHub, the open-source community he started, he designed an EddieBot, an open-source bot that promotes inclusive language so that everyone can feel welcome and safe. Day by day, his community and he are constantly updating and developing it. GitHub, he claims, is an amazing place to share knowledge, network with others, and improve his talents. And, as a result of his consistent contributions and content creation to help the community, he was nominated to be a GitHub Star.

Feross Aboukhadijeh

With the explosion of open-source software in use, he felt the need for a new approach and built a Software supply chain security with the mindset of vetting all dependencies. Socket was founded to assist developers in securing their software supply chains. Socket aids in the prevention of insecure or malicious open-source packages infiltrating apps. In addition, he worked on open-source projects such as WebTorrent and Standard JS.

Daniel Stenberg

He has been working on open-source since at least the mid-1990s, and his major time on GitHub was around 2010 onwards when he received an email asking him to accept the nomination for being a GitHub star, which was entirely the consequence of his selfless and constant efforts to the industry. As he puts it - "I don't work on "interesting ideas". I work on bringing fundamental Internet functionality to the world, in a usable form."

Avelino

Since 2008, he has been contributing to open-source projects and has been a part of some of the most outstanding and well-known projects, including Golang, Django, MongoDB, Riak, and many others. He's now working on creating a chronological database with git internals(tree structure).

Alex Ellis

A GitHub Star who quit his job in 2017 just to serve the community and support end-users spending the most of his working week on GitHub, from issue assistance to pushing code, bug fixes, and feature additions, producing block posts and documentation via GitHub Pages, and writing to his GitHub sponsors on the weekends. He primarily makes transferable functions between cloud and on-premises environments, as well as unlocking limitations embedded into cloud functions such as timeouts, payload sizes, and supported languages.

He gets feedback on what to build from the community and clients, including products like arkade, which makes constructing local Kubernetes setups easier than before. K3sup simplifies the installation of a small Kubernetes cluster, and inlets connect containers, Pods, and VMs to the Internet.

He even has two GitHub Actions eBooks. And as a GitHub Star, He also reviews new features and helps test the ones that could assist many of his workflows.

Gift Egwuenu

As a community contributor, she accepted the duty to educate and actively generated resources for developers to assist them on their quest to become world-class developers. She has been creating a series of videos on YouTube called Cloudbits in which she teaches developers about cloud technology ideas in a very short and easy-to-understand manner. In addition, she is a conference speaker and organizer.

Liran Tal

He's been a long-time supporter of the open-source ecosystem, from open source projects to speeches, workshops, security research, and tools he's created. Nowadays, he's been experimenting with everything from rich CLI like dockly, which manages Docker containers from the CLI, to recently experimenting with gigsboat, which helps you track all of your speaking engagements entirely on the GitHub platform, with no tools or hosting required. Aside from that, he's fascinated by open source software supply chain security and has been active in a number of activities in this field in the hopes of improving the existing situation and creating a more safe ecosystem for developers all over the world.

He says, "Becoming a GitHub Star is the manifestation of demonstrating all of these values which the program appreciates - educating, enabling, and inspiring developers."

Vinit Shahdeo

Back then in 2014, just a curious soul wondering how Facebook works, and five years later, his curiosity and the open-source community led him to become a Software Engineer at Postman, the world's leading collaboration platform for API development during which he stood to support his country with a stand against the pandemic and built COVID-19 Tracker overnight which has helped numerous of people a lot in tracking down the number of cases in a single click to let people stay aware of the situation.

Open source, he feels, kept him on his toes and inspired him to continuously strive for more. The 'GitHub' way of life has increased his motivation and appreciation for all that he has received, and he now aspires to contribute even more to the community.

Words of Wisdom: Straight from the GitHub Stars ⭐

According to my fellow GitHub stars, it's not about how much time one spends on GitHub, but about the quality, and when you start treating your work like someone you care about, a daily visit is a necessity.

Becoming a GitHub Star was not a goal for any of us; it was a byproduct of a lot of hard work and making open source a huge part of our lives.

Gina Häußge would like to remind you all to take care of yourselves and to remember to breathe and rest; there is no need to rush. At the end of the day, it's all about how to constantly carry out your contribution to the community and you'll be rewarded for your efforts, which is impossible without proper health.

Eddie Jaoude encourages his younger self to start learning in public sooner than he did since he realized along the way that it's better to start right away than to put off your interests for vague reasons, and when one understands what they truly want in life, they should never waste time to achieve it!

Feross Aboukhadijeh advises you to participate in the open-source first, rather than feeling guilty about not responding to GitHub issues, and foremost to have fun and learn because the best productivity of technical people like us never comes out under stress, and we can only shine when we love and enjoy what we do rather than treating it as a task to be completed.

Daniel Stenberg encourages you to follow your heart because it will lead you to routes where you can continue to share love and kindness around the world and keep it going indefinitely.

Avelino explains, "Code is not the end, it is the means for solving a problem. Talk to people more and practice your text communication, always assuming that what is evident to you is not obvious to someone else - provide as much context as possible to everyone involved, even though the information is obvious to you, it may not be obvious to the other person."

Alex Ellis claims that now that he understands what is achievable as a consultant and entrepreneur, he wishes he had quit his full-time job much sooner. He writes about business, marketing, sales, and open-source every week, yet he thinks these are the kinds of things he could have used ten years ago!

Liran Tal suggests you to be brave because it takes a lot of guts to stand out and do something different from the rest of the world, allowing you to be seen apart from the crowd.

Gift Egwuenu, being a woman herself, encourages all of the younger girls to be that girl who goes out of her way and beyond to do incredible things, quit being afraid of the unknown, and never miss the opportunities because you will regret it for the rest of your life if you do. It's pointless to live a life saying "maybe it would have happened," when you can develop what could truly make it happen today and leave your mark on the world.

And I say - "If you're a techie, your homepage should be GitHub, not Instagram!"

When someone wants to start something new in their life, the only thing they seek is the source of motivation to do so and, when you get through their stories for yourself and see how much effort they put in and have the respect they deserve, you should be encouraged by them. Therefore, I hope that by reading this, you have a better understanding of the genuine tale of their hard work and commitment to the community.

And hence, I'd like to ask you all to nominate someone as a GitHub Star in your knowledge whose journey inspires you and who has stood up and gone above & beyond for the community.

Lastly, you may interact with GitHub Stars on Twitter and ask your queries. I have tagged them in this tweet. ⬇️

I'd like to express my gratitude to my fellow GitHub Stars for sharing their remarkable experiences and the time they put in to do so. Along with this I also want to thank Trilochna Vaid for her assistance in drafting this article.

Happy Open Sourcing! 🎉

2021, a year that changed our lives in multiple unimaginable ways. With the pandemic making us strive hard to survive, we all still witnessed the wonders of technology including the major transition from Spider-Verse to the Metaverse. The virus' pangs reached my home as well and I along with my entire family were tested positive for COVID. With God's grace, everyone recovered well. While I was stuck alone in isolation, it got me thinking - what is that one thing I’ve always wanted to do apart from being a developer? It didn't take long to find an answer. I’ve always wanted to help the community by sharing my learnings with individuals and budding developers to aid their journey into the beautiful world of tech.

Fortunately, 2021 had more in store for me than just COVID. I am Vinit Shahdeo currently working as Postman at SWE II. Oops, sorry, as SWE II at Postman!

Software Engineer II at Postman

From learning about APIs to a company that helps you build APIs, my journey at Postman from an intern to SWE II has been exhilarating. If I had to describe my life at Postman in a nutshell I would say API-first vision, challenging projects, amicable team and JavaScript.

What makes me get up and work every day at Postman is knowing that what I do, impacts millions of developers across the world.

Hacktoberfest

Hactoberfest, in my opinion, should be renamed as Hack-to-perfection. As a developer, I get more excited about Hacktoberfest and open-source than holidays. The rush to get as many first-timers' pull requests merged and the happiness that came along with it. This year, more than 1000 newbies kickstarted their open-source journey with my Road-to-Hacktoberfest initiative. This is a developer's version of getting 100K views on your reel.

GitHub Star 2021 and 2022

This is what my GitHub looked like when I began my open source journey. Blank! I had no idea where to begin and how to proceed. Many of you would be in that place while reading this. Don't worry I have got your back there! My quest that began with “How does Facebook exactly work” became the beginning of my journey “How I became a GitHub Star twice”. For those of you unfamiliar with the term it is GitHub's way of expressing gratitude to influencing people who help the community and I am more than delighted to write that I got recognized again. Connected a lot of green dots to make it to a Star!

Giving back to the community

In my journey of tech and open-source, 2021 has been more about growth and giving back to the community. From being mentored to mentoring, a lot has changed over the years. This pandemic made me realize all your plans and goals may not turn out exactly the way you want them to, life is unpredictable! “Be the mentor you wanted to have as a learner” and I am trying to become that. If you feel overwhelmed with so many resources and tutorials, find yourself stuck in the tutorial hell, and if you aspire to become a developer.; don't only build projects, build your dreams!

Over the course of my freelance career at Scaler Academy and Masai School, I have mentored more than 200 students and I look forward to guiding much more. You don’t need money to attend these sessions. All I expect from you is the zeal to learn.

Connect with me for👇

Interview Preparation and Tips

Prepare with me for your interview. I was as nervous as you are right now and yet I made it. I hope to help you with my experience as an interviewer and someone who got interviewed by so many companies. I have interviewed 100+ candidates so far.

I will assist you with tips to get yourself ahead before even starting.

Career Guidance

With so many opportunities and roles, it's normal to be confused. However, you are not alone in this. Reach out to me for a personal session on career guidance.

Let’s figure out the right things to be done to pave a dream career path.

• We will discuss your aspirations, interests, ability & align them with the perfect career option

• We will design a strategy based on your short & long term goals

1:1 Mentorship

Reading articles, watching videos helps but nothing beats being personally mentored. Let’s have a detailed chat about (not limited to):

• Your career, goals, aspirations & progression

• Keeping yourself relevant in the industry

• Switching jobs

• Navigating job offers

I will be happy to share my two cents based on my experience. You can consider it as one more opinion while deciding. Let’s make it happen together! Block your slot on Topmate.

Resume Review

Is my resume good enough? Don't worry. I got you covered. Having a good resume is as important as having good skills. I will help you with mistakes in your resume (if any). All important tips, tricks and hacks to improve your resume.

We will be working on giving the best shape to your resume and building a roadmap to add the best industry-standard projects to your resume.

Mock Interviews

Are you preparing for the interviews? But confused whether you are prepared enough or not? Before your real interview mocks prepare you in the best way. I will be your mock interviewer and will give you suggestions based on your profile.

• Proper feedback with areas of improvement

• How you should approach a problem during an interview?

Open Source

If you're a newbie in open-source, don’t scratch your head, my buddy, I've got your back! You can find FAQs answered in one of the AMA sessions. And also, don't forget to introduce yourself in the discussions section.

Book a session

You can find me on Topmate. Reserve your seat and I will get back to you.

Connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Students and early contributors to open source often get lost in the hurdle of getting the right projects. Newbies are always curious about the following questions:

• As a beginner, how should I get started with GitHub? 🤔
• Where can I find beginner-friendly repositories/issues? 🧐
• Can someone mentor me to complete my Hacktoberfest challenge? 🥺

In my initial days, I have faced hurdles too. So, I don’t wish that for my juniors and early contributors. In an effort to make Hacktoberfest 2021 easy for novices, I along with a few of my pals have decided to start an initiative.

An informal initiative 🤝

We have started an informal initiative to address the above queries and mentor the beginners for a seamless experience.

• If you are a beginner, this blog will guide you on getting started with open source and finding the right mentor, and
• If you happen to be experienced in this field, we would be more than grateful to onboard you as a mentor.

39 people have already joined these quests to help beginners kickstart their open-source journey. We are compiling a list of beginner-friendly issues so that the Hacktoberfest enthusiasts can get their minds playful. We are starting this open-source celebration journey with an optimistic vision of hitting the following number:

• 100 Mentors
• 1000 Contributors
• 250 Repositories
• 500 Issues
• 50 Events

The aforementioned metrics are achievable if we become a workforce of approximately 100 mentors along with curious beginners and professionals. Currently, we’re 61 mentors short.

I salute all the amazing mentors who decided to trade away the hours that they could use to pursue their own career goals and spend them on guiding newbies in getting started with GitHub. 🙌

How can you get on board as a mentor? ✌️

Anyone who is willing to give back to the open-source community and is familiar with Git and GitHub can become a mentor to assist novices to get started on their open-source journey. To do so, please create a pull request to add your name to MENTORS.md.

Your job as a mentor will be:

• 🙏 to resolve beginner's doubts.
• 👍 share beginner-friendly issues (& repositories).
• 💬 engage with other community members.
• 🤝 welcome and help others to finish the Hacktoberfest challenge.

Join us in reaching the milestone of 100 mentors. Recommend anybody who is interested in making a difference. In case, you've missed the mentor's onboarding session, please watch the recording on YouTube.

Add your issues/repos 🙌

Are you a project maintainer? If so, please consider submitting a PR to have your issues/repos included in the list. As previously said, we're targeting 500 issues, with all your support we can easily hit that mark. For any queries, please reach out to me, Aman or Dev.

Beginners 👋

Worry not! I don't want you to be the only one without a Hacktoberfest Tee! The Hacktoberfest'21 repo has everything you need to get started with open-source. You may get a sneak peek at some of the good first issues by clicking here.

As a beginner, your duty is to:

• 👀 Keep an eye on the repo.
• 🙌 Find a mentor right here.
• 💬 Start a discussion here if you happen to face issues.
• 🤝 Join our community on Discord.
• 📨 Kindly submit your details to keep yourself updated.
• 🎙️ Follow us on Clubhouse to stay tuned!

Student communities ✨

Are you organizing an Open Source, Git & GitHub, or Hacktoberfest event and looking for speakers? We would be more than grateful to join you as a speaker. To request a mentor to join as a speaker, please create an issue here.

Happy Hacktoberfest 🎉

This October join me as a mentor to guide the beginners to open source enlightenment. To all the curious contributors, find a home to your queries and quest for potential issues to contribute.

My DMs are open on Twitter for any collaboration/suggestions.

Quick links: Become a mentor | Submit an issue | Join our Discord

Thank you :)

Tomorrow is September 1st, which means that Preptember has arrived, and Hacktoberfest is just around the corner! In preparation for October, the entire month of September is dedicated to learning and hunting for the repositories. Here I am back again to help you in completing the Hacktoberfest challenge!

It’s that time of year again when we come together to support and celebrate the open source technologies we use and love! Because GitHub is my homepage, the month of October has always been a time of celebration for me. Every year in October, hundreds of thousands of developers around the world make their first-ever contribution on GitHub. More than 500 pull requests were opened for my repositories last year. Helping hundreds of people to mark their identity on GitHub was ineffable. This year, Dev, Aman, Pranjal, and 13 amazing folks have joined me so far. I am thankful to the community members who have felt this way in mentoring newcomers.

It can be difficult to know where to begin when it comes to contributing to open-source, especially if you don't have a particular repository in mind. To prep you, I've compiled a list of beginner-friendly issues(& repos) ahead of time so you hit the ground running as soon as Hacktoberfest begins.

Check out @vinitshahdeo/Hacktoberfest2021 repo.

Beginners 🧐

Newbies have a look at some of the good first issues that are available in the Hacktoberfest2021 repo. I don't want you to be the only one who doesn't have a Hactoberfest tee!

• Add more Inspirational Quotes: I encourage that you begin working on this issue right away; all you need is an inspirational quote! You're now a step away from submitting your first pull request.

• Coder's way of wishing happy birthday: Do you have a better way to wish someone a "Happy Birthday"? What's holding you back from submitting a pull request here?

• More issues at Hacktoberfest2021.

Need help 🤝

You are most welcome to stop by the Clubhouse for a quick chat. All the mentors will be hosting rooms to help beginners to kickstart their open-source journey. Follow our club to stay tuned! 🎙️

Project Maintainers 🙌

Kindly use this thread as a place to connect with beginners. Remember that this is a community we build together 💪.

I hope that you will:

🙏 resolve beginner's doubts

👍 share beginner-friendly issues (& repositories).

💬 engage with other community members.

🤝 welcome and help others to finish the Hacktoberfest challenge.

Become a mentor ↗️ | Submit a beginner-friendly issue ↗️

Happy Hacktoberfest! 🔥

I wish you a wonderful open-source journey, whether it is your first or fiftieth contribution. As the saying goes, "sharing is caring" so please give a shoutout to the Hacktoberfest2021 repository. Make an effort to encourage your friends to join you. They'll appreciate it later!

Register here for Hacktoberfest and make four pull requests (PRs) between October 1-31 to earn a free t-shirt. Kindly watch the repo, I will keep updating the list of issues. Have you encountered a beginner-friendly issue? Please raise a PR to add it to the list or comment below!

Wishing you a happy preptember and the happiest hacktobefest!

Become a mentor ↗️ | Submit a beginner-friendly issue ↗️ | Watch the repo ↗️ | Share on Twitter ↗️

Since last year I have been working towards enabling workflows to connect developer's favourite tools and services seamlessly with Postman. If your favourite tool isn't yet mentioned here, the team would be delighted to hear from you. Raise a request to get an integration you need. 🤝

The last two years have been tremendous in both my professional and personal development. Three months ago, I was promoted to Software Engineer II, and I'd want to share what I've learned so far. If you're just starting out your career, the lessons below might be helpful.

Keeping my journey short, here you go!

👇

1. Always be curious 🧐

Coding won't drive you long, curiosity will! Curiosity lets you ask questions that help you see new perspectives of the problem you're trying to solve. Learn to question every requirement before you start smashing your keyboard. When you ask a lot of questions, you learn the requirements from the end-user's point of view, not just from a developer's point of view.

2. Communicate! 💬

Prior to joining the firm, I had the impression that software developers spent their whole day coding. In fact, dealing with a range of people across the organization makes up a large portion of software engineer's day-to-day responsibilities. You must communicate on many levels as a developer. You'll be in meetings for hours, listening and talking. In my initial days, I used to listen to the conversation and learn from my senior colleagues.

So, it turns out software engineers spend a lot of time collaborating across IM channels like Slack, email, reading product specifications, reviewing code, interacting with stakeholders on GitHub issue trackers, hiring engineers, and attending meetings. Be it verbal or written communication, it's the most important asset one can have! Remember, you're communicating only if you're conveying the information.

Your schedule may appear to be crammed with meetings for the day at times. Postman's no-meeting Wednesdays and daily focus time to work on deliverables have been quite beneficial to me.

3. Learning is a continuous and ongoing process 🚊

No one has all of the answers, but everyone is willing to learn! Each developer is unique, with individual strengths and weaknesses. Keep adding to your knowledge portfolio, whether it's a tool, language, framework, or design pattern. Learning allows you to broaden your horizons.

At Postman, I work with JavaScript all of the time. Every six months or so, a new JS framework emerges, and I try to figure out how this new addition to the JS family is revolutionizing the world. The JS community on GitHub has been quite helpful to me. Open Source kept me on my toes and encouraged me to always strive to do better.

4. Coding is a team sport 🤼

👇

Choose the best group of code athletes to play with!

Collaboration is the key! Individuals can't develop and scale their applications on their own. Coding is a team sport. I consider myself fortunate to be playing this sport alongside a couple of the smartest tech-brains at Postman. 🧑‍💻

5. Know the impact of your code 💪

They say you can change the world with code. As software engineers, we must know how we are changing the world. Look beyond the scope of your task to get a sense of the bigger picture.

Knowing how my code impacts the millions of developers that use Postman to gear up their API development keeps me motivated and inspires me to write better code to meet their high standards. This boosted my confidence as an engineer, and I realized that the work I was doing might genuinely make a difference in people's lives.

6. Document your code ✍️

Nothing felt more boring than creating docs back when I was in college. But when I first started working, I learned the actual value of documentation. Time spent on documentation rather than developing is not lost. It’s not the most exciting part of a software project, but it does make all the difference. If it’s done right, it will not only save you time but also improve your product. As Postman began to scale, the documentation from various squads served as guidelines, allowing us to execute things correctly on the first go.

The same goes for comments. Comments aren’t an alternative to writing clean code, but an inherent part of it. It helps other developers to understand your code. And it's not just about deciphering other people's code or conveying your thoughts to others. How often have you found yourself wondering what you were thinking when revisiting old code, fixing a bug, or been surprised by a git blame revealing your own name?

Do your team a favour and properly document your approach. It is critical to include code comments. The better your code is documented, the fewer friction others will encounter while contributing to your codebase.

7. Code !== Happiness 🙌

Even if your pull request is overflowing with comments, don't be upset. Don't be afraid to make mistakes when learning. Be happy and continue to improve!

You'll be a happy software engineer if you enjoy learning and adapting, as well as taking on new challenges every day. Productivity and well-being are aided by happiness. In my early days, I used to become upset on Mondays when a bug appeared in the code I had baked in the previous Friday, causing my entire week to be disrupted. Later on, I realised that rather than being irritated, we should learn from our mistakes and that it's fine to make mistakes as long as we don't repeat them.

8. Think API-First 🏗️

When I first started as an intern, I discovered that hitting an API endpoint and receiving a response is only one of Postman's numerous features. A few days later, I learned that the world of software development is moving from a code-first approach to an API-first approach and Postman is leading the way in the API-First universe.

Gone are the days when you wrote your code first; now it's all about building your APIs first. API-First thinking is crucial because it forces us to pause for a moment and consider the bigger picture. To better understand the API-First term, read this article by one of the Postmanauts. 🧑🏻‍🚀

Not only did I learn about the typical Software Development Life cycle, but also about the API Development Life Cycle. Today Postman offers tooling for all the stages of API development. If you're a student, consider checking out these programs to learn about APIs. 🚀

9. Work remotely 🏠

While some of us worked from home prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's a whole new ballgame for others who haven't. Working from home was difficult for me for the first 3-4 weeks, but now I can work from anywhere for my employer; all I need is decent internet connectivity. While I don't miss getting up early, dressing up, or commuting in Bengaluru's crazy traffic, I do miss our lunch table gossips, office parties and Cooper - Postman's Chief Happiness Officer!

With more and more firms moving toward forming teams of remote engineers spread around the globe, you should learn to work remotely - managing your time, prioritizing your tasks, avoiding distractions, and overcoming feelings of isolation and loneliness as you work outside of a regular office setup. It may take some time to adjust to this ever-changing normal.

10. Don't be a robot, build relationships 🤝

Human beings are a social species, and given that we spend one-third of our lives at work, it goes without saying that the better our relationships at work, the happier, more engaged and productive we will be.

Many people working in the "work-from-home" setup are still getting used to it. This "new normal" has affected not only our workstations but also our team relationships in some ways. We don't have the room or time to socialize with our coworkers when working on a deliverable because we're entirely immersed in our daily activities. Interacting with my coworkers at virtual coffee meetings and team-bonding activities such as Friday's game evening have helped me relieve the monotony of work. Don't hesitate to speak with your peers whenever you have the opportunity.

👋

I might not be able to express how thrilling and wonderful it's been to be a part of Postman, witnessing the the team expand from less than 100 to more than 400 and the number of users climb from 5+ million to 15 million in the previous 2.9 years. Hit me up on Twitter if you're excited to learn more! If you're interested in working with us, take a look at the available positions.

Have grown and growing tremendously! 🏃‍♂️

Today, I kicked off my day with an invitation to start testing GitHub Copilot, an AI pair programmer! Copilot, like GPT-3, is a game-changer in software development. It's fascinating to see AI being used in coding. After a day of use, I believe AI will undoubtedly lead us to low-code and no-code software development. This AI assistant was trained on a data set with a considerably higher concentration of publicly available source code, and of course it's much more than auto-completion. It learns from you and adapts to your coding style.

GitHub Copilot: Your AI pair programmer 🤖

According to Wikipedia, Pair programming is an agile software development technique in which two programmers work together at one workstation. One, the driver, writes code while the other, the observer or navigator, reviews each line of code as it is typed in*.

With Copilot, two coders(one of those coders is virtual) will work on the same project to catch each others’ mistakes and speed up the development process. You won't have to waste time looking for APIs, modules, or other alternatives to finish your project. 🐱‍💻

Currently GitHub Copilot is in a limited technical review and enrolled for a limited users. The preview version works with Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, and Go, but the upcoming versions will support more languages.

Sign up for the waitlist to speed up development with your personal coding assistant 🤖

It's available as an extension for Visual Studio Code editor. Access to GitHub Copilot is limited to a small group of testers during the technical preview of GitHub Copilot. If you don’t have access to the technical preview, you will see an error when you try to use this extension. Don’t have access yet? Sign up for the waitlist for your chance to try it out. GitHub will send you an email once your wait is over! 🌟

Have you already tried it out? In the comments section, tell me about your experience or your excitement to pair-program with your virtual coder friend. You are most welcome to stop by the clubhouse for a quick chat. 🎙️

Here is the source of the cover image.

I've started my blog (finally) today! I'll talk about JavaScript, open-source and everything in between.

After several delays and a variety of reasons, I can finally start writing blogs on my personal domain. I previously published on Dev.to, Medium and Quora. I joined Hashnode a couple of weeks ago and was completely blown away by the customizations and SEO features, prompting me to turn my Hashnode blog into my own homepage on the internet. Kudos to Sandeep, Shad, Catalin Pit, Syed, Edidiong Asikpo, Megha Pathak and the team for building the best dev-blogging platform out there! 🎉 🔥

Why >_ git [w]init ? 🤭

My friends nickname me Winit, and that's where this concept originated from.

git [w]init = GitHub with Vinit Shahdeo aka Winit.

Motivation ✨

After my family went through a difficult COVID chapter, it made me realize that life is so unpredictable, therefore do the things that have been on your bucket list since long, whether that is trying a new hobby, working on a side project, or starting a blog! Having a personal blog where I share my experiences has been a long-held ambition of mine.

Lastly, I'm so excited to share my open-source journey and everything in between (even more excited to see you here!). I'd love to know what you're looking forward to reading. I'm keeping an eye on the comments below!

Thank you and welcome to my blog once again. 🤗

Let the journey begin! 🚀

With love, Winit :)

01001000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 
00100000 01000010 01101001 01110010 01110100 
01101000 01100100 01100001 01111001 00100001

When someone near and dear to your heart turns another year older, you’ll want to do everything you can to make their day extra memorable. Whether you’re throwing a birthday party, a cocktail party or planning a dinner at the honouree’s favourite restaurant, it’s tradition to wish them online via Facebook/Twitter etc. People makes beautiful cards to celebrate this occasion but what about us? We are not creative, we’re coders! Nope, I must say we’re creative coders. 😎

Let's begin console.log('Happy Birthday!') 🍰

Lemme help you with a few code snippets starting with one of the senior member from the programming languages family - yes, it's none other than C!

Too much of C now, let’s have something for PHP lovers. Ask him/her to decode this : SGFwcHkgQmlydGhkYXkh

Now let’s play number game!

486170707920426972746864617921

Guess what? Yes, it’s “Happy Birthday” in hexadecimal notation.

Next comes, Python

And the last, designing a website is always an impressive idea. I have created one too — Click here to view!

This year, say “Happy Birthday! 🎂” with a few lines of code that no one will forget. Got a better idea, share it through comments or raise a pull request! 🚀

For age=1 to current, repeat parties until drop dead! 🎉

Wish me on 20th Jan - @Vinit_Shahdeo 🎊

Linktree | Instagram | LinkedIn | GitHub | StackOverflow

I'm writing with a blissful bright smile that I have been recognized by GitHub as a GitHub Star. For those of you who got caught up in the jargon, the honour of becoming a part of the GitHub Stars Hall of Fame is not any less than getting a Gold Play Button from YouTube.

The GitHub Stars program thanks GitHub’s most influential developers and gives them a platform to showcase their work, reach more people, and shape the future of GitHub. Till now, there are just 46 GitHub stars worldwide. Learn more.

During second last week of March, my usual work-day Friday unfolded into a surprising evening, which was matched by the thrill of receiving an email that read out the 'few magical words' every developer wants to hear - "Congrats, you're a GitHub Star!" 🌟

I am grateful to GitHub for recognizing the work I have done and my journey as a developer. Not only has GitHub helped me hone my skills but it has introduced me to some exceptional developers, who are now my closest pals. Give me a cheer if our meet-cute story includes GitHub. 🍻

As I always say the green dots on my GitHub profile represent my wandering expeditions - from one repo to another. Five years ago I was just a curious soul wondering how Facebook works and back in 2019, my curiosity and the open source community led me to become a Software Engineer at Postman, the world's leading collaboration platform for API development.

Open Source kept me on my toes and encouraged me to always strive better. The 'GitHub' way of life has boosted my motivation and reciprocating all that I have received, I now strive to give more to the open-source community.

Find my GitHub Star Profile here.

No need to git commit just yet - I still have my GitHub Stars Swag box to unpack!

Happy Open Sourcing!

Say Hi on Twitter.

Be it blogs, podcasts, videos, community conferences or hackathons, GitHub Stars keep sharing their stories on the platform. You can keep an eye on what's cooking on GitHub Star's pot! 🌟 Wondering how? github-stars-feed is an open-sourced NPM module that can help you in getting their latest feed. Now, it's open to your creativity, how you showcase their contributions in your application!

Here's how?

• npm init your project
• npm install github-stars-feed
• touch index.js

Now you're just a couple of key-strokes away from getting the GitHub Stars feed in your >_terminal. It's time to utilize the most popular pair (CTRL + C and CTRL + V) among developers! Paste the below code-snippet inside index.js and run node index.js.

const githubStars = require('github-stars-feed');

githubStars.getFeed((err, feed) => {
  if (err) {
    console.log('Something went wrong while fetching GitHub Stars Feed');
  } else {
    console.log(feed); // latest GitHub Stars contributions
  }
});

getFeed() will return a JSON response(sample given below) containing the latest GitHub Stars contributions.

[
  {
    title: 'Meet Vinit Shahdeo, a resident of Jharkhand, has been recognized as a GitHub Star',
    summary: 'My journey got featured by the News Khajana.',
    link: 'https://thenewskhazana.com/story/meet-vinit-shahdeo-a-resident-of-jharkhand-has-been-recognized-as-a-github-star-22451/',
    updated: 'Sunday, November 3rd 2019',
    author: {
      name: 'vinitshahdeo',
      uri: 'https://stars.github.com/vinitshahdeo'
    }
  },
  {
    title: 'Mentor - Google Summer Of Code',
    summary: 'Postman is one of the mentoring organization for GSoC. This year, Postman has AsyncAPI Initiative as part of their team.\n\nI will be mentoring an idea for AsyncAPI i.e. AsyncDiff. It\'s basically a library to compare two AsyncAPI documents and generate diff for the review process.',
    link: 'https://community.postman.com/t/idea-9-asyncdiff-general-information/21694',
    updated: 'Sunday, November 3rd 2019',
    author: {
      name: 'vinitshahdeo',
      uri: 'https://stars.github.com/vinitshahdeo'
    }
  }
]

Additionally, you can provide options to filter the feed. Kindly refer this for complete documentation.

var options = {
  limit: 2,
  sanitize: true,
  username: 'vinitshahdeo'
};

githubStars.getFeed(options, (err, feed) => {
  if (err) {
    console.log('Something went wrong while fetching GitHub Stars Feed');
  } else {
    console.log(feed); // filtered feed
  }
});

Please refer the GitHub repository to explore more.

Let me know what do you build consuming github-stars-feed on Twitter.

I’m unbelievably humbled to have received an email saying “Congrats, you’re a GitHub Star!” back in March. From a (green) dot to a star, here’s how my journey uncoiled! 🚀

🍻 Cheers:)