I feel conflicted about the side projects thing. Yes, you shouldn't absolutely have to have some to be considered for a job. But on the other hand, I look at m

I feel conflicted about the side projects thing. Yes, you shouldn't absolutely have to have some to be considered for a job. But on the other hand, I look at my wife (who is a special ed teacher). She makes a fraction of what I do but to keep her certificate, she has to take for credit college classes, submit them to the state, etc. This is ostensibly to prove that she can still do what her degree says she can do. Most other lines of professional work have some form of continuing education requirement. And that's what I look at side projects like: some form of public effort at trying to improve your skills, show that you can do what you say, etc. Comparatively, side projects [1] feel incredibly egalitarian. They don't care what school you went to, they don't require much in the way of cash payouts to get going. They author seems to disdain Github, but they'll give you a free account and let you push code to it. 1 - I think we'd need to collectively define what this term means. But I think of it as bit size projects that scratch a particular itch. The author likes dogs? Great spend $1 and use AWS Rekognition to do image search over a bunch of dogs. They have kids? Work with them to put together a little project you do together. You like working at the art collective - GREAT! - do an awesome online art thing.