My contribution graph looks empty!

I recently left a company and subsequently the private GitHub organization. Additionally, I used my work email for commits. The result is that my contribution graph was reduced to my OS contributions.

Now, while on one hand I despise the fact that our society treats likes, karma, and alike as currency, GitHub activity can be relevant for the career.

So needless to say, this is a bummer.

How to protect yourself

As a result, I want to remind everyone that

you should always commit using your personal (main) email

Even after leaving (or getting kicked out) of an organization, you will at least keep your contribution count.

What if it's too late?

GitHub will count your contributions even for unverified emails as long as nobody else verifies that email. I have heard of cases where intranet emails like "mylocalmail@localhost" where used in order to enable switching corporations without any hastle (be aware that you need to make sure it's unique enough).

Why did this happen to me?

I am afraid that all of this should have been obvious to me. But I assume that I am not the only one not thinking about such things. So I figured the least I can do is share this information as a reminder and would ask you to help me doing so.