There are a lot of things being conflated in this post. Side projects Geography Running a side business 1) I agree side projects do not define a good develope

There are a lot of things being conflated in this post. Side projects Geography Running a side business 1) I agree side projects do not define a good developer (frankly, I don’t have any outside toy ones). But given 2 equally good choices, I can’t blame an employer who chooses a Dev with side projects as opposed to one without (since they can see their code). That being said, a better interview process would involve real coding which would eliminate this situation altogether. 2) I’m not sure where the rant about geography fits in. If you are limiting yourself to Austin you’re limiting yourself to an even smaller pool of developers than the Bay Area, NYC is Seattle. And there are many families with dogs living in all these areas. 3) Is suspect the fact that the author is running a side business may be a bigger concern. The author’s specific business may not, but as an employer, I’d imagine there is no way my job could compete with your side business since you actually have money invested in. I wouldn’t be surprised if this would, more than the lack of side projects, affect someone’s employment opportunities. Just the way the author has setup the discussion it seems they basically left the company with no code to see at all. I can’t show you the coding I have done, because it’s at work. I can’t show you any other coding I have done because I have not done anything outside work. But I did start an art project once. I think a far more useful tack (which I have used in the past) is to ask the company to provide you with a task, and give you a week to solve it. This allows them to actually see that I can code and solve a problem.