My side project over the last few years was more or less the deciding factor in me getting hired at my current employer and my previous one. Being able to demo

My side project over the last few years was more or less the deciding factor in me getting hired at my current employer and my previous one. Being able to demonstrate turning an idea into reality and talk about technical (and design) problems I encountered and how I solved them seemed to be much more interesting to interviewers than most of what I had done at my previous day jobs.