That's an awfully false dichotomy and I'm also not sure you checked out the linked article. I'm not a fan of whiteboard interview nonsense either. Probably for

That's an awfully false dichotomy and I'm also not sure you checked out the linked article. I'm not a fan of whiteboard interview nonsense either. Probably for all the same reasons as you. Enough said there. I also really life to see folks' side projects. I think they are a good substitute for work experience - if somebody doesn't have relevant professional experience in a field, but they've been doing it in their own time, that's good & impressive and should be rewarded. I've been hired myself partly on the strength of a large side project I did. However, the linked article is about essentially demanding that hires have side projects, as a demonstration of their passion. Rejecting folks on the basis of a lack of side projects is going to be at least as disastrous (in terms of throwing away people who'd be great at the job) as rejecting candidates who flunk a whiteboard test or silly logic problem... and for some of the same reasons. Specifically, neither of those things is necessarily similar to the thing you're actually hiring them to do. There is an inverse correlation between "time a person has for side projects" and "the demands of their day job." The folks with the most time for side projects are the folks who are either underemployed or unemployed, or don't really do the whole "friends and family" thing outside of working hours. Also -- and keep in mind I'm saying this as a big fan of side projects and following one's passions -- the act of following one's passion in one's spare time is profoundly different from getting shit done at a 9-to-5. The purpose of a day job is directly or indirectly make money for one's employer. Often that means doing shit one does not want to do. It is a grind, even in "cool" jobs that overlap with one's passions to a large degree. In short, seems to me the gulf between "following your passions" and "actually getting shit done for your employer" is about as big as the gulf between "passing a whiteboard exam" and "actually getting shit done for your employer."