100% of people with side projects are passionate. That's why folks put a lot of emphasis on side-projects because it predicts passion almost perfectly. The opp

100% of people with side projects are passionate. That's why folks put a lot of emphasis on side-projects because it predicts passion almost perfectly. The opposite, that people without side projects aren't passionate, simply doesn't hold true. I've met and worked with engineers that were extremely passionate about programming but who had better things to do on the weekend than code (outdoors, sports, spending time with their kids). Their passion showed in continuously learning, often about things that were related to what they were working on, and an interest in computing. They'll make out time to learn or better use any time you set aside for that at work to improve their skills or mentor. They exclusively code from 9-5 but it's a completely different mindset than the folks who only treat is as a job or worst that actively try to stop coding. The later are probably the people that you really want to filter out of any hiring pipeline, and I've met my share. Learning a new codebase is to be avoided, reading code is a waste of time and so on. A lot of them try to get in management as soon as they can, and you can imagine the results.