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Ask HN: for senior positions is it advisable to list side projects on your CV?

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Re: Ask HN: for senior positions is it advisable to list side projects on your CV?

#61

Post by jkingsbery »

I do a fair amount of helping interview senior positions at my current company. At the risk of saying something obvious: when interviewing senior people, the goal is to figure out whether they will do well operating at a senior level. Senior engineers usually bring two things to a team: a broader and deeper technical knowledge, and the ability to help influence and structure larger projects (doing larger scale designs, reviewing designs and code from other engineers, helping mentor more junior engineers, things like that). Side projects can sometimes help inform someone's technical abilities, but it's rare for people to have a side project where they are doing a lot of the "influencing others" part of the job.

But, yeah, if you put in the work, it shouldn't hurt to list your side projects. But also, keep them in perspective: don't bring them up simply because they would be "interesting to discuss." By their nature, side projects don't deal with a lot of challenges of professional projects: there's usually no deadline, there's no disagreements with other engineers, they deal with a smaller scale audience so don't deal with bugs and maintenance.

Re: Ask HN: for senior positions is it advisable to list side projects on your CV?

#62

Post by intellectronica »

Yes, sometimes, but you need to have a good sense for what is actually impressive to the people reviewing you, not just impress yourself (and you are the easiest person to impress).

Merely the fact that you put in the time to build something isn't going to be that impressive for someone considering you for a senior role. They'll want to know that your work was valuable to others, that it had impact. So if you just built something for fun or as an exercise, I don't think it's worth showing it. But if you wrote or contributed to a popular open-source project, or built something that is used by a large number of people, or you got published somewhere respectable, or you were successful in achieving some impressive goal like helping a community you care about, do share.

Make sure to explain how your work was impactful with numbers, quotes, use-cases, etc...

Re: Ask HN: for senior positions is it advisable to list side projects on your CV?

#63

Post by milliondollar »

Depends on definition of "senior". If you are still an individual contributor and need to demonstrate technical expertise, fine. But if you are a manager, you need to demonstrate the ability to lead, create impact, and deliver results. Side projects are for entertainment / continuing education.

Re: Ask HN: for senior positions is it advisable to list side projects on your CV?

#64

Post by pdovy »

Personally I will always look through side projects or a GitHub if it's on a candidates resume. It's another source of signal and can be really valuable especially if there is code to look through.

That said as the role gets more senior the value of the signal goes down IMO. Side projects are typically done solo, and are small-ish in scope. Whereas a key function of a good senior IC, at least in my opinion, is to be a force multiplier more than a heads-down coder.

Re: Ask HN: for senior positions is it advisable to list side projects on your CV?

#65

Post by 908B64B197 »

majewsky wrote: post #31
Jenk wrote: post #21

I always ask candidates if they have anything to show off. I am _always_ more interested in what people do as a side project than I am of what they have done professionally. Hyperbole time but I think it conveys the message: People do side projects for better reaons than they do professionally. At worst it's because they want to quickly learn/achieve something for their next job. Compared to professional experience,…

I appreciate your sentiment. At the same time, looking at side projects runs the risk of discriminating against qualified candidates who don't have time for side projects because of other commitments (e.g. childcare or care for elderly relatives) or who choose to pursue non-IT hobbies to keep a work-life balance. How do you avoid treating such candidates unfairly?

I treat side projects as a "nice to have"

Some of the best engineers I've worked with had exactly none, and very full lives outside of work. But you could tell they punched above their weight just by looking at the resume.

Re: Ask HN: for senior positions is it advisable to list side projects on your CV?

#66

Post by majewsky »

deregulateMed wrote: post #58
fernandotakai wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's not that i don't have time -- i do have time. but i don't want to write code as side projects anymore. i much rather do something else. play a videogame, read a book, watch series. i already work 8~10h a day, after that, i want chill and think about something else that is not code.

Sure. The parent claimed there wasn't time. Btw have you considered something drastically different than your current code? Embedded comes to mind, it's half electrical engineering and lots of instant gratification. But in general, nonfiction books could help you ace an interview. I wowd some people by merely talking taoist philosophy and how despite having diverse skills, there's something to be said about sticking…

> The parent claimed there wasn't time.

You forgot the second part of my sentence:

> or who choose to pursue non-IT hobbies to keep a work-life balance

Re: Ask HN: for senior positions is it advisable to list side projects on your CV?

#68

Post by choff »

Off-topic feedback on your side project - audiobookmate.

I really enjoy the layout of the site, and it feels very natural to navigate. A feature I'd appreciate is a small modal popup on-hover whenever my mouse sat on top of an audio book's cover for a couple seconds, providing a synopsis and maybe the reviews for the current book I'm hovering. (See Goodreads for an example of this)

Otherwise, great job on both sites.

Re: Ask HN: for senior positions is it advisable to list side projects on your CV?

#70

Post by jstx1 »

posharma wrote: post #69

If you care about only FAANGM companies, leetcode is all that you need. No one at these companies care about your side projects.

They fit in different part of the hiring processs. A side project is something that potentially makes your resume more attractive and makes it more likely you get a callback/interview. Leetcode is a technical test which comes later.

Being the best leetcoder doesn't make a difference if you don't get an interview.

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