This. It's one thing to say "don't be biased against people who don't have public GitHub profiles full of stuff they can show off". It's very clear that there a

This. It's one thing to say "don't be biased against people who don't have public GitHub profiles full of stuff they can show off". It's very clear that there are a variety of reasons why that would be the case. But it's an entirely different thing to say "side projects have no correlation to job skill". Which is literally what a lot of people in the article's referenced tweet are saying, and even what a few people here are saying. The reality is, most of the resumes you're going to get for any particular job posting are going to be garbage. Poor performers are over-represented in the open job market, both because they stay in the job market a lot longer (can't stay very long at one place) and because they need to apply to lots of places in the hopes of playing the numbers. The resume is completely broken. But it's all we get from "open" job positions. If the resume is all I have to go on, most of the ones I get I have to throw away because they have nearly zero match for the posted position. Of the few that are left, the ones that somehow show they aren't a hot-potato are going to the top of the stack. If all you have is enterprise Java experience and you're applying to my VR project in C#, and you have nothing to show, not even side projects, that you have any experience writing C# or game code, I'm not going to even give you a call. And that sort of thing is the majority of resumes you'll receive. If you want a particular job, you need to be able to show some kind of ability to do it. If that's your actual, professional experience, that's the best. But if you're trying to change industries, you gotta have something that correlates. So what is it going to be, if it isn't a side project? The better way of evaluating candidates is to start from referrals, but that has its own issues of gatekeeping, either conscious or unconscious. If we're talking about open job listings, getting nothing but a cover letter and a resume (and you're lucky to even get a cover letter), how else are you supposed to do it? You can't interview everyone. There are people who will be a complete waste of time.