In a category $\mathcal{A}$ (with all filtered colimits, like $\text{Rep}(G)$), one can define the notion of a compact object $A \in \mathcal{A}$ as an object for which the functor $\text{Hom}_{\mathcal{A}}(A, -)$ commutes with all filtered colimits. Since objects of the abelian category $\text{Rep}(G)$ are direct sums of their irreducible components, it's easy to verify directly that an object is compact if and only if it is finite dimensional. Therefore, the finite dimensional representations are precisely the compact objects of $\text{Rep}(G)$.
Similar assertions to the above hold at the derived category level. For a regular scheme $X$, the compact objects of the derived category $\text{QCoh}(X)$ are precisely the coherent complexes--that is, thosebounded complexes which have bounded andonly coherent cohomology. Note we need to go to the non-bounded level to speak about compact objects, since our category must have all filtered colimits.