Reads like someone who's deeply frustrated with their career history... "Forget side projects and focus on job" sounds as terrible as the opposite: "ignore you

Reads like someone who's deeply frustrated with their career history... "Forget side projects and focus on job" sounds as terrible as the opposite: "ignore your job and just send time on personal interests" It is my experience that most recruiters are superficial to the point that unless they received instructions to literally hire someone with most meetup attandances, they will ignore any candidate that list those in resume. But, there ARE recruiters who can see through a weak resume and help you make it more targeted, surface keywords that help you get interviews. I see .fr in domain: is going through recruiters the main way to get hired in IT in france? Where I am the best way to get hired (beyond entry level) is through referrals and for those, I find that side projects and collaborations are much better at generating a future lead that just proving you were good at your job