This is something I’ve gone back & forth over as I’ve contributed to some projects online but have been hesitant to mention it when applying for jobs. Typical reasons such as wanting to keep work/personal life separate.
Let’s say you are applying for an engineering position and you want to mention that you contribute to an open source project. Mention the software stack used, maybe the number of downloads, and your focus on the project. Explain it in general terms. If it gets asked about in the interview, just answer questions without providing the name of the project.
Wouldn’t that come off as suspicious?
Why would it? How would they know about the personal one?
Suspicious as in: You’re lying; the project doesn’t exist or you haven’t contributed to the degree you’d claim to.
Maybe I have the wrong take on this. In my mind you have two accounts. One account for projects you are working on that are intended for general public consumption. Potential employers see that one. The other account is for projects that you want for personal use or a much narrower consumption. I never intended either to contain the work of others or to not accutually exist.
That’s why I have multiple accounts on platforms. One for professional stuff and one for personal.
That’s typically how I approach things, but this is asked in the context of having done stuff under a personal account that could help advance you professionally, but you don’t want to share your personal handle as it’s, well, personal.
