Stars

You don't need stars on your GitHub repos, but they can't hurt. When I see that someone has worked on a GitHub repo with more than even 20 stars, I think, "Hey, people are actually using their work!"

Social proof is a very powerful thing in both marketing and hiring. It sends a signal that other people think your work is valuable. They don't just need to take your word about how awesome you are. So don't underestimate the power of:

• GitHub stars
• Social followers
• Blog readers
• Video views
• Podcast listeners
• Personal recommendations
• etc.

That said, I would not spend too much time "marketing" your projects to try to get stars - but there are a couple of simple things I do recommend:

• Share your projects at least once on LinkedIn/Slack/Reddit/Discord/etc.
• When you share, ask for feedback and suggestions (this makes it less spammy)
• Contribute to existing open-source projects that already have stars and users