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As a hiring manager, I never cared about side projects, or Stack Overflow or Kaggle scores. The most a side project github link would tell me if it was big or n
by jonathankoren 6y ago
As a hiring manager, I never cared about side projects, or Stack Overflow or Kaggle scores. The most a side project github link would tell me if it was big or not. That’s it.
I’m not going to go through and read a bunch of random code by myself, when I can just ask a couple of questions, and get the same information quicker. They are just too many resumes to read.
Seriously, all side projects tell me is that you spend your free time coding, instead of hiking, or some other hobby.
- dvt 6y agoGoing to throw a bit of shade here, but there's a lot of irony in thinking that "hiking" is some exciting hobby while denigrating people building stuff in their spare time.
- hobs 6y agoIt's not saying its exciting, its that its equally boring.
- triyambakam 6y agoI don't think the parent poster is giving any judgement to how people spend their time, only qualifying how.
- actuator 6y agoI don't think he is denigrating it. He probably phrased it badly, but he meant you did side projects like a hobby just as well you might have done hiking in that time.
- makapuf 6y agoExcept that some side projects have value. The fact that you do the show useful traits- not all that you should consider hiring and not sufficient but useful. Not agreeing they have more value than hiking is wrong. I know several side projects which did have value and shown at least that their holders were interesting to hear.
- confidantlake 6y agoI read it the same way. Hiking is a stereotypical hobby along with playing an instrument.
- jonathankoren 6y agoAll hobbies are irrelevant.
- jokab 6y agoI work at a company as a consultant. Devs here have been doing the same thing for 10 years. Webforms. Guess what? None of their hobbies include coding. Stuff like git is like fire to these cavemen.
- jonathankoren 6y agoMy first question is what does migrating to a new system get you that the current system doesn’t? Is the new system even compatible with existing system? I ask, because you sound like you want to rewrite a stable system. Stop whining and make a business case. The idea that you need hobbies that match your work is as dumb as expecting a funeral director to embalm cats on the weekend.
- arcticbull 6y agoNot directly, for sure, but every decent company's screening process includes a segment roughly expressed as "tell me about something you built -- what technical challenges did you face, how did you overcome them." Sometimes, your side project is a more compelling answer than your day job. I've got some really compelling side projects haha.
- cpursley 6y agoWhat prevents someone from just BSin'g you in response to your questions? Code doesn't lie.
- jonathankoren 6y agoThat’s what the coding screen is for.
- Aeolun 6y agoI feel hiring managers enjoy talking about my side projects a lot more than about my boring day job.