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In the past five years, I've had several side-projects that were never "finished" in the literal sense, but taught me important things that helped me ace job in

In the past five years, I've had several side-projects that were never "finished" in the literal sense, but taught me important things that helped me ace job interviews, getting me two jobs that I probably wouldn't have got otherwise. At some point I had a mental shift and decided that a side-project that doesn't get finished but gets me a new job is a huge success and not a failure. This had a big impact in me continuing to explore new personal projects as long as I can learn something interesting from them.

danjac 6y ago
That's an interesting data point: personally I've never found side projects to have any effect on getting a job - recruiters and interviewers don't care in the slightest about your side project, Github profile or whatever and will just "follow the script". I just see side projects as interesting for their own sake and a way of learning about things you'll never get the chance to in your day job because it's not in the company's wheelhouse.
- Darkstryder 6y ago
  I should stress that it is not the side-projects themselves that got me the jobs but the knowledge I acquired while working on them. I usually do side-projects on topics that interests me, and usually apply on jobs that also interests me, and I just hope for the two to converge: at some point the interviewer will ask a question about a technical topic I never worked on professionally, but on which I have intimate knowledge thanks to those side-projects. And then I'll be able to give an interesting answer while my previous jobs and education would not have prepared me for that question.
  - danjac 6y ago
    Sure, I think we're in agreement here. The $dayJob is usually too limited in scope - you can't just drop in, say, GraphQL into a project because you want to learn it (and nor should you). Plus in a large enough company backend devs are kept away from touching frontend code and vice versa. Companies usually don't like to invest in training either so side projects are often the only outlet developers have to learn and explore.

danjac 6y ago

That's an interesting data point: personally I've never found side projects to have any effect on getting a job - recruiters and interviewers don't care in the slightest about your side project, Github profile or whatever and will just "follow the script". I just see side projects as interesting for their own sake and a way of learning about things you'll never get the chance to in your day job because it's not in the company's wheelhouse.

Darkstryder 6y ago
I should stress that it is not the side-projects themselves that got me the jobs but the knowledge I acquired while working on them. I usually do side-projects on topics that interests me, and usually apply on jobs that also interests me, and I just hope for the two to converge: at some point the interviewer will ask a question about a technical topic I never worked on professionally, but on which I have intimate knowledge thanks to those side-projects. And then I'll be able to give an interesting answer while my previous jobs and education would not have prepared me for that question.
- danjac 6y ago
  Sure, I think we're in agreement here. The $dayJob is usually too limited in scope - you can't just drop in, say, GraphQL into a project because you want to learn it (and nor should you). Plus in a large enough company backend devs are kept away from touching frontend code and vice versa. Companies usually don't like to invest in training either so side projects are often the only outlet developers have to learn and explore.