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Ask HN: How to get back in employment market after working on side projects?

• PaulHoule 5y ago
  When I get serious about a side project often people are calling me offering jobs after a year or two. It’s one reason why my career hasn’t gone in any straight direction.
• codeptualize 5y ago
  Isn't "I was working on side projects" a decent explanation? You could even put them on your CV and close the gap, work is work. Being able to show you can build something on your own is a big + in many ways. Developers are in demand, so it would not surprise me if a gap doesn't matter in any way. Maybe just try to apply to something. Even if you don't get hired it might give you some pointers what you need to focus on to get back to it.
  • cpach 5y ago
    Or just “I was working on different projects”
  • Aachen 5y ago
    Yeah exactly this. How to get a job if you have perfectly marketable skills and just spent time building things? Idk, just apply? Worst case you notice a company finds it odd and you can better explain what you have been spending time on next time. Just apply, don't make shit up, you'll be fine right?
    • aeoleonn 5y ago
      Hahaha @ "just apply" I think you mean "just repeatedly throw your resume into a black hole"
• jt2190 5y ago
  > I think the employment gap is hard to explain for either role. What percentage of each week was spent: • designing, coding, or otherwise building the product • selling or marketing • researching the market and interviewing customers • other
• mech422 5y ago
  I agree with the other comments - I wouldn't worry about it too much. If the projects were pertinent to the work your trying to get - throw them on your resume and call it good. Showing you have a passion for a field/tech. etc. will probably be a plus.
• Vahkesh 5y ago
  Spending time working on side projects is a common occurrence in-between employment for devs. I've done the same in the past, and simply explained that I was working on open-sourced software. If you've spent several years working on side projects I would assume that you have something to showcase on your resume.
  • Aachen 5y ago
    Speaking just for myself, usually side projects are too small to really be a showcase; expecting they have something nice might not apply to OP. Then again, I also didn't make it my day job to work on these things, but still OP could just have taken it easy. Doesn't mean they're out of touch or anything. They should just apply to a place they like, and if there is something to showcase that's indeed all the better.
    • jon-wood 5y ago
      I’ve gotten job offers on three separate occasions off the back of side projects I was playing with between jobs, and neither was particularly impressive. The benefit of going in with a side project is that during interview you can show what you’ve been working on, and you can dig into the code. That’s not something you can typically do with things you’ve built for an employee because everything is under NDA so you can only talk in general terms.
• DarrenDev 5y ago
  Don't call them side projects. Call them apps, products and businesses. Each one used a particular tech stack, each one had a life-span of some kind: a start, a launch or a middle, users maybe, etc. How would you explain all this work if you were hired by a small company to build them? You wouldn't hesitate to claim the years working on these interesting projects as valuable years and part of your career growth and progression. We tend to downplay things we do or build ourselves, as if the very fact that another person (a boss) tells us to do something makes it immediately more valuable than if we choose to do that something ourselves. It doesn't. The app you built because you chose to has just as much value as the app you built because someone paying you a monthly check told you to build it. Wrap your 'side projects' inside a business and claim the credit for all that work.
  • vmception 5y ago
    Pre-revenue businesses with no product fit "I learned a lot so your startup won't fail trust me lol" and no references But yeah they won't care about the crappy products since all the companies you interview with are doing the same, honestly the real followup question would be what do you do about references
    • developer93 5y ago
      Employers like a github link, should go some way towards what you need?
      • vmception 5y ago
        Employers don’t really care If you have enough experience for a recruiter to respond at all, none of that extracurricular stuff matters
        • codetrotter 5y ago
          > none of that extracurricular stuff matters But that “extracurricular stuff” is exactly what op has been spending their time doing for the past years.
• aynyc 5y ago
  Assume your side project is something that our society accepts as normal business, you can just say you were the CTO/CEO/Founder of "Advanced AI, LLC". If it's open source, you can just flat out say that.
  • seattle_spring 5y ago
    Just so we're crystal clear here: calling yourself CEO or some other inflated title would be an outright lie. Some recruiters and HMs might fall for it, but resumes like this that come to my desk end up directly in the garbage bin.
    • cpach 5y ago
      I guess founder is more appropriate
      • MikeDelta 5y ago
        I often see "Founder & CEO" as well.
        • eropple 5y ago
          I use "managing member" - it's the thing on the LLC foundation documents.
    • edmundsauto 5y ago
      Why would you penalize people for this? Most CEOs do the same thing - do you feel its dishonest or something? To me, it's more of a "yes, this is dumb, but it's a mistake that someone could make out of naivete or lack of confidence". It doesn't strike me as something particularly misleading (since, as you say, you see right through it). In fact, given all the outright lying that already happens in hiring, I would say this is one of the more innocuous annoyances. (And it does annoy me, but I'm annoyed at how people use the phrase, not at the one particular candidate.)
    • muzani 5y ago
• JSeymourATL 5y ago
  > back in the employment market... Don’t look for a job, instead look for the person you can help. There is a senior executive out there, a line manager who you can serve and solve problems for. Get clarity around who this person could be. What kind of organization? Where do they sit? (LinkedIn is a great resource for this). * I’ve found smaller companies, less than 100 people easier to work with. Now, reach out to them for a discovery conversation. See if your circles overlap. Essentially, avoid the common trap of filling out job applications, hoping to pass the HR filter.
  • avgDev 5y ago
    During my CS undergrad I got hired by a VP of a company before I graduated, as he also attended CS classes for fun. I am decent with computers built gaming rigs, overclocked, built servers, set up home labs and networks, built html sites, wordpress sites and was doing extremely well in school. We often talked about how I always was working on different projects. I have been IC at this company for 4 years now with minimal supervision delivering apps. I did not have an interview. Therefore, I agree with this advice. Many companies are looking for developers who can develop apps for them as ICs, and OPs experience would be perfect.
• devoutsalsa 5y ago
  They weren’t side projects if they were your main projects. Think of it as self employment and find a way to spin that. If you applied to a job I have, I’d mostly interview you like a normal person, and then I’d say “If you’ve on your own for 9 years, are you sure you really want a normal job? I want to hire you. But this is a job, and that means sometimes you’re gonna have to put up with this company’s bullshit. Even though we do our best to keep the bullshit to a minimum, we still deal with crap we’d rather not do. Tell me why you’re interested and willing to put up with bullshit, and don’t just tell me you need the money.” If you have a good answer to that question, I think you’ll be fine for a job that matches your value proposition.
  • readonthegoapp 5y ago
    I agree-ish with this sentiment But I'd start by saying OP is fucked It's a good market so you'll find something Eventually You're obviously smart because you could chill for a few years (Or you got an inheritance) The general genre of reading you are looking for is "why entrepreneurs can't get hired" -- something like that. I would be honest-ish about the money You, like 99% of people with 9 to 5s, need a job because you need money and/or healthcare That is impolite to talk about often but it could actually work There is a bit more honesty going on right now because of pandemic trauma I'd look to pick up a contract by answering some of the 8 trillion spam emails you're getting Perm jobs are going to be like fuck this guy Imo
    • an_opabinia 5y ago
      > Perm jobs are going to be like fuck this guy Yeah, the poster is not engaging with how the recruiting pipeline really works. Concretely, to get back into the top of the funnel, you should pay for a compsci masters program at a respectable university. This is a good career reset opportunity and will nullify the need to investigate your past. Another commenter mentioned leetcoding, which is essential. It's really concerning you're focusing on remote work. If anything in-office work is super uncompetitive right now, which you can always turn into whatever arrangement you want. Don't start off by talking about stuff that makes people say, "fuck this guy."
• saluki 5y ago
  List your block of time outside regular employment as consulting. Then provide a list of notable projects/clients that highlight what you completed during this time. If you don't have interesting clients/projects I would just say you consulted for various companies doing x when it comes up. I just did this moving from consulting to a full time dev role and the various interviews were fine. It's pretty typical for developers to do their own thing for periods of time.
• tracedddd 5y ago
  Returning to the job market sounds a bit defeatist. I’d take a different route and just look for some contracted work or consulting through your network. Go above and beyond with it and try to spin it to a full time role.
• jan_Inkepa 5y ago
  I've been self-employed for over ten years, and part of me likes being fiercely independent/etc. Part of me feels hopelessly cut off from the modern programming world, having not coded properly on a team feels a bit sad/like I'm missing out on a really fun part of work/existence. Part of me feels like it's useful self-sabotage in that it means I'm putting myself in a situation where I have to continue being fiercely independent. But yeah, I'm reading the replies here with interest, and I wish you the best :) Thanks for asking an interesting question! I agree with the other posters that you shouldn't really term them side-projects if they were your main focus. Then they're just projects! :) Don't undersell yourself.
  • buildingmateri 5y ago
    Understand the sentiment, I took a cyclical approach over a decade or so, a couple years self-employed, a couple years on a coding team, repeat. Although the last employment period gave an equity windfall, (and not to mention crypto investments) so only doing entrepreneurial stuff moving forward.
  • prawn 5y ago
    I've worked for myself for 20+ years, but always in a shared office or co-working space which addresses any social side of a regular work environment. But, like you, modern/collaborative programming or project work has passed me by and I suspect I'm unemployable now. I think beyond the ability, there's also the interest/willingness in working for someone and it likely doesn't marry well with the fierce independence. I don't think I could do it now. Thankfully, I have no intention of getting employed, so it's a reasonable stalemate; I just carry on working on my various projects.
    • tartoran 5y ago
      > modern/collaborative programming or project work has passed me by and I suspect I'm unemployable now. You’re not missing out on anything. If something you’d be unpleasantly surprised how convoluted team work and new pipelines have become. Being independent is a healthy path to keep away from toxicity. But I agree about the unemployabiloty nagging feeling, it’s psychologically unpleasant to feel that but should you ever reenter the corp pool you’d hate it with all your guts.
• muzani 5y ago
  I put my experiments under a "freelancer" role. The role of a resume is to summarize your career in a 30 second glance. I include a portfolio for those who are curious what I actually do but few do. You could probably just include all your projects under a "founder" role. It says a lot more than leaving it blank. Many people would be happy to hire someone with that kind of iterative experience.
• andyxor 5y ago
  leetcode a lot, that's the key to getting a job as a software engineer
  • leeoniya 5y ago
    absolutely not "key"
    • crazy5sheep 5y ago
      however, it's an easy and achievable investment.
      • exdsq 5y ago
        Sadly
• lordnacho 5y ago
  Don't worry at all about it. Embellish your experience as "consultant" and just make sure you actually understand the tech. That's after all what people need from you. I get the feeling you're just a little anxious about jumping back on the interview carousel. The market is super hot right now and employers will allow you to explain yourself. When it comes to salary, answer the question of how much you want, not how much you were getting paid.
• ping_pong 5y ago
  Similar to what others have said, say that you were trying your own startup for a couple of years but it never panned out. Be ready to describe what you wanted to do. That's what I did after 1 year of taking off to do my own thing. No one gave it a second's worth of questioning.
• leeoniya 5y ago
  facinating how much advice here only applies to FAANG jobs & startups in SV/NY. there is absolutely not enough info in the OP to provide meaningful advice. what kinds of side projects were they? what tech stacks? how technical the implementations? etc. etc. there are plenty of well-paying software jobs that need neither leetcode nor a masters CS degree from MIT. telling someone that these are the current barrier to entry without any context is absurd. my 65yo father went from being laid off a $100k php job due to covid to another $100k php job 6mo later. the first at a small mfg company with 3 devs; the other at 10 person front-office online retailer with 4 devs. he is not a 10x dev, still prefers jquery and no one he spoke with knew or cared about leetcode. he's probably never written a merge sort impl in his life, though i suspect he has sorted lists in production a time or two.
• victor9000 5y ago
  First of all, most developers have gone through similars phases in their careers, so don't feel like this is some sort of mistake you made. Take all those side projects and spin them back up so you can use them for demos during interviews. This approach has worked remarkably well for me in the past. It shows initiative and the ability to drive a project to completion, so I would focus on ways that you can leverage these projects to your advantage.
• mentaloriental 5y ago
  I've been wondering the same. Spent the past eight months on a mental health break from employment after being thoroughly burnt out at my last job. The combination of remote working, pandemic isolation, bad management and increasingly heavy workload really fucked me up. Been doing some simple side projects recently to try to get back into the swing of things, but no idea how I'm going to explain it when I start job hunting again. Reading the comments here with interest. Anyway, best of luck to you in yours. Hope you find something fulfilling.
• rvn1045 5y ago
  I’m currently doing this as well and for anyone else who is doing this you should continuously share your thoughts and progress on Twitter or your blog or YouTube or whatever. It’s easier to leave a track record and you’ll feel a lot better for doing it.
• stadium 5y ago
  It's about the same situation as a full time parent re-entering the workplace. Some companies have internship-like return-to-work programs. It's not clear if this is your situation, but maybe there's a story behind your gap that would resonate with a hiring manager. Also consider expanding your target to on-site roles in the short term. 6 months of that should be long enough to fill in the employment gap. And you can always keep applying for remote roles until you land one.
• buro9 5y ago
  Stay in your lane... if you apply for IC engineer roles and say you want to be a manager then this is not a good signal (they're hiring for an IC engineer). Or if you apply for manager roles and you want to continue coding then this is not a good signal (they want someone to manage). So pick the one you want to focus on and simplify this story for the next few years to make a success of the one you choose. I would say that whilst there is more need for managers in tech those are harder to find a fit on, and so you will have far better success finding a role as an IC. If you want to start in one lane and change lane after 1-2 years then aim for a startup that has 50-500 people and is growing as then you'll have the greatest number of opportunities to pick a different lane. The employment gap is not an issue, and could be viewed as an advantage: Self-motivation, bias-to-action, drive. Of course it can also be viewed as a disadvantage: Not a team player, will they be onboard with the company goals/mission. You get to frame this, so when you present it ensure you do so in the former... "work was not stimulating and you had some tech itches to scratch so you applied yourself to those to support your own growth and learning and now wish to apply some of that to a role at a company". On applying for roles... just apply. You don't mention where you are located but remote roles don't typically pay SF/tech hub salaries as they can opt for a far larger pool of people and don't have to prop up landlords in hot markets like SF. This too will be an advantage for you if you happen to be pretty much anywhere else so be sure to treat that as an advantage that you have, know that for remote your not being in SF is a plus. TBH there's so little info in your post and nothing personally identifiable that it's hard to give specific and concrete advice, but the above comes to mind immediately.
• vagrantJin 5y ago
  Depends on what your goals are. But it comes across as selling yourself and your hard won skills way too short. Are you looking to just be a coder or are you willing to use your product dev experience? If you want to be another coder in a seat, go for leetcode and apply to 200+ companies. Use LinkedIn religiously and pad those skills with obscure frameworks and references. If you are serious about a job then you must position yourself as someone who can help, and that won't neccesarily mean "coder". Technical project management, business analyst someone who can understand what deployment to a kubernetes cluster means and the importance of a well structured support pipeline - is etremely valuable. There must be a reason you are under-selling yourself but good luck.
• Lapsa 5y ago
  Wrap it, spin it... So many lame advices here. I mean... Whatever. Fckin IT industry.
  • AndyMcConachie 5y ago
    This is the best answer!
• qwerty456127 5y ago
  > employment gap is hard to explain As soon as somebody demands me to explain employment gap I consider the next offer. Because that is bullshit. Why do I have to explain my life? I'm not a slave for whom it would be a crime to live a life instead of always working when not sleeping.
  • qwerty456127 5y ago
    To be honest I can hardly understand how do people survive working 11 months a year without having a year off every some years or full-summer vacations. I have a blessing of living in a non-expensive (yet reasonably good) place where this is possible for me but most of the people supposedly can't afford this and I find this fact a horror. I can hardly see a reason to live if you have to spend most of you time at work.
• AndyMcConachie 5y ago
  If your code is available then make it into a portfolio and use it to your advantage. When I used to hire techies I loved having a portfolio of projects to look at.
  • AppleCandy 5y ago
    Yes, show what you've developed/produced, as opposed to more abstract items of e.g. job responsibilities. Also, skillset and capability is more important to me than a pristine employment history, but you need to find an effective way of demonstrating it. A portfolio of projects is a good way I think. Personally, if I were to take a break from being employed, I'd invest some time to leetcode, because I love problem solving and I'm competitive. I just feel that I've never really had enough time or focus to get deep into it, but I think it's a good way to keep sharp. And one can show an achievement record for such activity as well, which is a good indicator of skill.
• j780 5y ago
  I'm in a similar situation but with an even bigger gap. My strategy, so far untested, is to concentrate on a newer technology where I can be a bit rusty but no worse than anyone else. I'm looking forward to other comments here.
  • devoutsalsa 5y ago
    Just remember that knowing the tools isn’t the part they really care about. They wanna know if you can build stuff that someone asks you to build, maintain legacy code, communicate well enough, etc.
    • j780 5y ago
      That's encouraging to me as I feel that those are areas in which I've done well. I guess I get the most value out of staying up to date on the newest tools by knowing when NOT to use them.
      • devoutsalsa 5y ago
        Unless someone is hyper committed to a laser focused tech stack (e.g. we're a React/Node shop), I don't think you'll have much trouble. If you only know older stuff, say mid-2000s PHP & .NET, but you take a month or three to pick up Python & JavaScript, you don't need to advertise that your PHP & .NET are much stronger than Python & JavaScript. Just say you know all four. Talk about what you've built, and what you know, and let them dig into what you built w/ what you know. If you really want to modernize your skillset, by all means keep working on it, but don't let your ancient tech subtract deflate or inflate your confidence. Focus on being effective, not a myopic "you can do anything with my tech" weenie. Think of it this way: - If someone worked in a 100% Perl shop, but they were doing things that sounded modern-ish & had dabbled in React after hours, would you still want to interview them? - Now if think of a Perl developer who is maintaining a server by hand, pushing tarballs of code with FTP, not using version control, and hadn't learned anything new since jQuery, would you want to interview that person?
• dlkf 5y ago
  Commenters, please stop generalizing from your own anecdotes and then representing the generalization as a universal truth. Some examples from the thread: - "there is no reason to spend the time looking at what people have done on GitHub" - "Employers don’t really care [about a github link]" - "None of that extracurricular stuff matters" There are literally hiring managers in the thread saying that they like seeing Github links, and have hired founders of one-person companies. So these generalizations are false. If you have evidence that your opinion represents the overwhelming majority, feel free to post it. If you're talking about FAANG, then you should qualify your statement. Most programmers don't work at FAANG.
• FlyingAvatar 5y ago
  As a hiring manager, if your side projects are technically interesting and relevant, I don't see a problem with saying that's what you did.
• sokoloff 5y ago
  From what I see (on the employer side), in most markets the way to get back into the top of the funnel is to flip every profile flag that says “actively open for new opportunities” and to respond to recruiters. A gap where you worked on technical projects that didn’t work out business-wise will make for interesting interview slots (in a good and memorable way for the interviewers). Three months ago may have been 2% better, but from a macro perspective, this is likely the best time in history to be looking for remote work.
• philfreo 5y ago
  As a hiring manager at a startup-ish SaaS company: I love seeing side projects, both because - it shows you have entrepreneurial skills (care about and able to think about more than just code) - as well as the technical side (shows you’re able to build from scratch, probably work across the stack, etc.) Show off as much as you can: - leave the websites up even if the business isn’t viable. Better to be able to see and play with a side project versus just seeing a line on a resume and having no idea how significant or good it was. - open source what you can. It can be very helpful to point to code from real projects you wrote, especially if you have a gap in employment. Try to foster great references. Even if they aren’t recent, you will do better if you have a few raving fans. Unless you had a lot of management experience, I suggest trying to find a job as an IC. More open roles / people seem more desperate for developers. If you’re good, it won’t matter much if you have a gap. Personally I prefer to hire ICs who have a little management experience because they tend to be better employees as well as are more likely to be someone who can eventually lead/manage with us as well. Overall: the biggest thing is you want to show that you have been doing good technical work over the last few years versus just some unemployable person who had “projects”. I’m hiring frontend/React and backend/Python engineers: phil@close.com
• nickd2001 5y ago
  As someone who took 2 yrs out of s/w dev then got back in, I'd say, you just need to find 1 employer initially that needs your skills and is open-minded about the gap and/or, has something limiting their pool of possible candidates, e:g location, salary etc. After my gap I found an open-minded startup which also couldn't afford to immediately pay particularly well so couldn't be picky. You could also, to echo a helpful comment in yesterday's discussion on burnout, find a "bad" employer that people keep quitting from and needs to hire replacements, then stay there for a time-boxed period, enough to get your work history back on track then hop to a more desireable employer. That might be a bit grim for a limited time, but if it fixes your career long-term, could be worth it. Good luck :)
• ysavir 5y ago
  Focus on what your intent was during the employment gap. The key is the intentionality of the experience. Unless you had no choice but to work on side projects, odds are you had some goal. Whether it was to learn how to build something from start to finish, provide support to someone in need, discover a passion, get experience with something specific, or something other, concentrate on that element. Employment gaps are typically a concern if: 1. It suggests the candidate wanted to work but couldn't get a job. 2. It suggests the candidate will not stick around for long. Employment gaps that served a purpose in someone's life are just as valuable as an employment history. Make it part of the narrative by explaining its role in your life, and how it characterizes you as a person ("I took a year off to care for sick parents") or how it served as growth ("I wanted to get more experience with X"). From experience, early in my career I took time off because I wanted to get better at understanding, structuring, and maintaining code test suites. Later on I had a gap when I tried to start a business. These aren't just times where I wasn't working, they are times deliberately devoted to something in my life, and they actually help the job hunt rather than hinder it.
• jpn 5y ago
  Stay humble and look at lower level positions that have room for growth. Working in a larger organization requires a different skillset, but if you're good, you should rise quickly.
  • jpindar 5y ago
    Where do you find low level positions? I'm in a similar position as the OP and I'd be fine with an entry level job (at entry level pay), but they're all labeled as 'intern' or 'new grad'.
• abinaya_rl 5y ago
  Doing side-projects is really useful for a lot of companies. Basically they are hiring a talented product people into their team. You know how to handle development/devops/support/marketing for your product. This is a huge plus for the team you are going to join.
• SMAAART 5y ago
  Lump together the time you spend working on your side projects as 1 employment entruy. Bets if you have a company name (and you should have) but if you don't, call it "self employed" and list your activities as if you were working at a company (because you were), best if some of the project have some web presence. Be prepared to answer the question about your salary at the time, in which case, tell the truth.
• clarkevans 5y ago
  You can list it as "Unpaid Sabbatical: Application Name". Then, put bullet points for the things you were trying to accomplish with this application, what challenges you encountered and how you addressed them. Be careful not to puff it up beyond what it was, but absolutely don't shy away from the work done. How you frame the work matters -- if you list something as an actual startup, for example, I'd probe you on your customer discovery process, etc.
• grayrest 5y ago
  I have a tendency to take 6 months or a year off between jobs and the uncertainty around Covid pushed my most recent funemployment round to 18 months. It was also the first time I've had trouble finding work. I tried a bunch of different things, applied for ~30 positions, but posting on the HN Who Wants to be Hired thread in May got me 6 good leads within the week and I had two offers within 4 days. If people ask I tell them the truth: I'm busy when I'm working and not working gives me time to investigate all the weird corners of programming that aren't necessarily commercially viable.
• tuckerpo 5y ago
  Most companies just care that you can pass their interview gauntlet and then LARP like you're really super into their mission or whatever. You'll be ok.
  • aeoleonn 5y ago
    LOL @ "LARP" Regarding corporate culture. so true!
  • tuckerpo 5y ago
    tru
• kami8845 5y ago
  Incorporate a LLC and put the whole period as "Founder, XYZ Widgets LLC"
• motohagiography 5y ago
  Get some contracting work then don't stop interviewing and use it as a stepping stone. Problem solved. However, first principle question, why is an employment gap "bad"? Realistically, you are at a disadvantage if you are unemployed so you will take a below market rate, and the skills you applied to your adventure are at least slightly above average. You are basically gold from a SMB or mid-stage startup perspective. Do you think you have sinned against some convention? If you think it makes you seem unreliable, unreliable to what? To forego opportunity, or believe your wage is your place? You haven't challenged the gods, you took risks to build a product and have learned more first hand about that than most people whose job is to manage someone elses. Imagining these barriers is just inventing reasons not to do it because you don't want to. Just take a 3-6mo programming or QA contract somewhere and improve your bargaining position so you aren't desperate.
• gwbas1c 5y ago
  I tried starting a business. 18 months later I realized it was going nowhere. (I also wasn't making any money, and continuing was about to get financially irresponsible.) In hindsight, I was just working on my side project for 18 months, unpaid. What I did was list the business on my resume just like any other job. I put myself as "co-founder" instead of putting in a fancy title like "CTO." When questioned about details of the business, or why I was looking for a job, I just point that I'm a horrible businessperson and better off working for someone else. If pressed further, I point out that no job is perfect, and the ups and downs of a normal job are preferable to getting my way all the time but not getting paid. You'll be fine! Example: See how I list AppFeeds and ObjectCloud: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwbas1c/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwbas1c/
• eatonphil 5y ago
  I'm starting on the second 5-year cycle of doing this. If you have done any contracting during the time I'd also encourage calling that out. Right now I'm doing contracting and working on my own ideas. I realistically expect to get burned out and desire to return to full time employment in a year (if not sooner). You may not always have your preferred choice of company but you shouldn't need to give up too much either so long as you are not actually desperate. Reiterating: doing what you're doing has worked out for me in the past (though saying "I was contracting" also helped I think), I'm doing it again right now, and I expect to be able to find full time roles again in the future without a big problem.
• micro_cam 5y ago
  Just be upfront about it and have a well thought out explanation of why you are returning to the job market instead of continuing. Like if it is a startup say it is a startup or recuring revenue project be prepared to talk about why it didn't get traction. I've also seen people who just spent time investing their own money and living off that and even some who were doing great but wanted more socialization. Being full stack and having some well developed entrepreneurial instincts are well respected things especially in small to medium companies. And there are more remote jobs than ever.
• ratsimihah 5y ago
  Clean-up + open-source side projects you don't want to monetize, they'll be your portfolio. Apply to jobs, show your GH, get hired.
• Taylor_OD 5y ago
  You've run a start up for the last few years and now you are looking to move into a full time IC role or eng manager role. You will likely get more bits for an IC role unless you were managing people on your "side project".
• Cymen 5y ago
  One option is to do some contract work either direct if you have the connections or through an agency. I've been working through Facet at facet.net for a couple of years and I've found them reputable, they put their fee on top of the rate you set and are transparent about that to the clients, you pick what to work on, etc. I'm sure you could find direct employment (there are monthly "who is hiring" and "who is looking" threads here for starters) but if you want to get your feet back in more gradually, contracting is nice in many ways.
• sigstoat 5y ago
  > What is the best way for me to start doing remote work? send out resumes. hiring is so hot that if you can do the work, nothing in your history besides "embezzler, intellectual property thief & saboteur" would slow you down much.
• gregrata 5y ago
  As many have said, don't treat them as side projects. They were apps or products you were working on - if they were at all "real" (e.g., had users or customers) than it was a startup you were trying to get off the ground (a lot of startups are bootstrapped that way). I've done a lot of this in the past - I built a platform and apps for consumer-focused location aware in the early 2000's, and another app that ended up with around 12 million users. When I interviewed at Microsoft Research, we barely talked about my "day job" (fairly straightforward C#/.NET enterprise stuff). They ended up focusing on the side stuff - because it was just me doing the design/architecture/coding/company, it was innovative, it was interesting - and I was super passionate about it.
• benibela 5y ago
  I had that problem after working a year on my open source projects. Then I went to get a PhD. I thought it would be flexible enough that I could keep working on oss. But there was no time for that. If it had been in a similar field, I could have worked on the oss as part of my thesis, but it was too unrelated Now I have a PhD and a completely outdated oss project, and do not know what to do next
• sjg007 5y ago
  Just list yourself as a consultant. If you want.. file for an LLC. You work for the LLC so there is no gap.
• ska 5y ago
  I've hired people in similar situations. If it's what you were doing (nominally) full time, it's not a "side" project, it's a project. Were these project technical? If so, emphasize that and tailor it to the job you are targeting. If not, emphasize what you were trying to do, how it worked out, and what you learned.
• hanedot10 5y ago
  I think something to keep in mind (really for any job search scenario) is that there will be companies, people and company cultures that just won't get what you're doing and what you stand for. Some hiring managers who know great teams are made up of players from very differing backgrounds will get it. Hiring managers who have been there themselves (gone the entrepreneurial route) will also get it. You may have to pace your audience here and select companies that seem to embrace bringing on people like yourself. You can do this kind of research on the company itself, on the hiring manager (check their LinkedIn) or see if you can set up a call with someone on the team. It's easier said than done, but if you can honestly believe (by yourself) that what you did for those years is an asset then it will just come through in telling your story. For context, I've come from a mixed experience background with some gaps where I started things and experimented. Although it did slow my formal career path, it's made me much more valuable than someone else with the same traditional years experience. Good luck!