Not only this, but the premise that working on your job will impress recruiters is just wrong. There's a pretty simple flow chart for getting hired at a bay ar

Not only this, but the premise that working on your job will impress recruiters is just wrong. There's a pretty simple flow chart for getting hired at a bay area company: 1. Go to MIT, Stanford, Cal, an Ivy, or CalTech and make sure you have linked in. 2. If 1 isn't possible then make a friend who works where you want to work and get a referral. 3. Cram leetcode That's basically it. Don't give up doing side projects and things you actually enjoy because that's how you learn. I think you're also overly harsh on recruiters (they're not 'bottom-feeders'), they're friendly and can help you out - but they're just looking in a very narrow subset. Basically the graduates from those schools and people already employed at FAANGs.