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I'm currently applying for jobs as a software developer. In my current position, I co-developed one of our "prime" applications of our company. The application itself is niche, but there are plenty of screenshots and informational material (and even a free version) on the companies website available .

Several of the companies I want to apply would like to see code (which I have in some personal projects on GitHub) and work references. Can I somehow use this as a sample of my work (without revealing any sensitive internal information or code of course)? I thought of including it as a short paragraph in the cover letter, broadly explaning some of the patterns and technologies we used.

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  • You have the code of the company application in your private GitHub? Why? – John Hammond Sep 20 '15 at 13:50
  • @LarsFriedrich Huh? No. In my GitHub is just personal, non-work related stuff. – Lennart Sep 20 '15 at 16:35
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Can I somehow use this as a sample of my work (without revealing any sensitive internal information of course)? I thought of including it as a short paragraph in the cover letter, broadly explaning some of the patterns and technologies we used.

Yes, you can point to a successful product as an example of your work. Explaining the patterns and technologies in your cover letter is a good idea - as long as they are specifically relevant to the job for which you are applying.

Of course you cannot show off any of the code, unless this is an open-source project. Even if you wrote it, the code is owned by your company, not by you.

You can include a link to the website, where potential employers could check out the product for themselves, even using the free version if they are so motivated.

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You are unlikely to be able to how them code from that project. The company or the customer owns that code.

Discussing the name of the project, the technologies used, the software management tools and process used are generally OK. The company putting some of that information on the website helps your case, if somebody from your current company complains.

You will want to discus in the resume or cover letter your role in the project, and how it can help you in the proposed position.

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