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Ask HN: What sort of side-projects are useful for getting jobs?

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Re: Ask HN: What sort of side-projects are useful for getting jobs?

#11

Post by liquidise »

The kind that you are/were passionate about and can speak knowingly about the techs you used in the project.

In rare cases, your side project is addressing one of the businesses needs directly, giving you domain knowledge. More likely is that it does not. At this point, the value-add of that project is that is improves your understanding of the techs you used. Can you talk about the pros and cons of using Go/React/Angular 2/techBuzzwordDuJour? That speaks to your passion and creativity, and stands to improves the knowledgeable of the team that hires you.

tl;dr: Do something fun that you enjoy. The rest takes care of itself.

Re: Ask HN: What sort of side-projects are useful for getting jobs?

#12

Post by typetypetype »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #10

Here's a piece of advice from actual experience (from both sides): Invest your time studying for interviews than wasting time building side projects if you're doing this purely for getting a job, period. In my experience, companies don't care about your little side project when hiring--that is, unless your "little side project" had some huge impact or is something they have been aware of--the best you could get is "h…

I agree with this except in the case of getting your first job, in which case you need something to point to.

Re: Ask HN: What sort of side-projects are useful for getting jobs?

#13

Post by juanbyrge »

For typical full-time jobs, whiteboard cording questions are all that matter. Whether or not you have interesting side projects or experience does not matter all that much.

For other type of work, such as freelancing or consulting, your previous experience may matter slightly more.

Re: Ask HN: What sort of side-projects are useful for getting jobs?

#15

Post by jamesmp98 »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #10

Here's a piece of advice from actual experience (from both sides): Invest your time studying for interviews than wasting time building side projects if you're doing this purely for getting a job, period. In my experience, companies don't care about your little side project when hiring--that is, unless your "little side project" had some huge impact or is something they have been aware of--the best you could get is "h…

So what do you do if you lack a degree and professional experience?

Re: Ask HN: What sort of side-projects are useful for getting jobs?

#16

Post by nrjdhsbsid »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #10

Here's a piece of advice from actual experience (from both sides): Invest your time studying for interviews than wasting time building side projects if you're doing this purely for getting a job, period. In my experience, companies don't care about your little side project when hiring--that is, unless your "little side project" had some huge impact or is something they have been aware of--the best you could get is "h…

This 100%. When I'm involved in the interview process I make a point to check out all candidates side projects but over 90% of people don't care.

In getting my last job I thought I would have a slam dunk because I have a bunch of cool stuff I work on but nobody cared at all.

I failed multiple on site interviews until I gave in and read a couple CSCI 101 books cover to cover. I had too much specialized knowledge and not enough fizzbuzz. On my second round of interviews I got offers from all three companies because I could regurgitate their stupid toy problems in minutes.

Re: Ask HN: What sort of side-projects are useful for getting jobs?

#17

Post by krabpaaltje »

DanHulton wrote: post #9

Finished ones. This sounds trite, but honestly, finishing things is hard. If you can show off a couple of finished side projects, that reflects much better than a half-dozen abandoned halfway through.

I agree, finishing a project is pretty huge.

Also have a portfolio website to show how and why you made certain choices. I have one (very bare bones) for my mobile apps but it helps the employee to see what you're capable of.

Re: Ask HN: What sort of side-projects are useful for getting jobs?

#18

Post by newbear »

zad1 wrote: post #5

I'm a junior web developer (1.5 years of experience) and I don't have a degree in the field, so references are all I have to proof my worthiness. And similarly I have a lot of small (mostly useless too) projects that nobody uses. But I still put them online. I have my own domain for development purposes only and whenever I finish a project to a satisfiable degree I put it on some subdomain amd add it to my list of re…

How did you get a job?

Re: Ask HN: What sort of side-projects are useful for getting jobs?

#19

Post by johnfn »

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #10

Here's a piece of advice from actual experience (from both sides): Invest your time studying for interviews than wasting time building side projects if you're doing this purely for getting a job, period. In my experience, companies don't care about your little side project when hiring--that is, unless your "little side project" had some huge impact or is something they have been aware of--the best you could get is "h…

Absolutely true. Which isn't to say to not do side projects, as they are a fantastic way to become a better programmer! They are just not the most efficient way to get a job.

Re: Ask HN: What sort of side-projects are useful for getting jobs?

#20

Post by ojr »

I get a few leads from my github account here and there and because I have been working more on closed-source side projects, my activity on github has been low for the past year, generally open-source projects that will be good to show for a job would probably have software that shows you're up on the latest tools and have some testing
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