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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?

#51

Post by stonemetal »

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 reflects my experience 90%. One time I contacted a company in a whose hiring thread here on HN. They asked if I had code on github they could look at. When my response was no, they broke it off.

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

#52

Post by mindcrime »

jamesmp98 wrote: post #49
mindcrime wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silicon Valley used to be famous for the exact opposite: the story was always that formal credentials were less important than demonstrated competence. Have things really changed that much? Anyway, at least here on the East Coast, I find that many (most?) companies don't have a strict requirement regarding a degree. At least, not if you have real world experience. Maybe it's more crucial if you're going for your firs…

Where are you on the east coast?

The RTP (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC) area.

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

#53

Post by UweSchmidt »

newbear wrote: post #18
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?

Lol.

There is definitively a barrier of entry in software and it helps if you do a bunch of things that are discussed here in this thread.

On the other hand, if you just need a job as a programmer and have skills like OP seems to have, and apply for junior positions, possibly through a contractor, then you will get a job.

This is for anyone who reads these threads and wonders "am I good enough?" "can I be a programmer?"

Yes.

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

#54

Post by bsvalley »

luhn wrote: post #39
bsvalley wrote: post #21

From my own experience dealing with all kinds of companies. If you aim for C-level companies (IBM, Banks, Oracle, Walmart, etc.) then you don't need to spend time building side projects. They simply don't care. For B-level companies like Uber, Airbnb, Dropbox and everything in between low and high skilled engineers, it's crucial to have a product of your own out there. They hire mostly young engineers with no profess…

How are you categorizing these companies? What's makes one A, B, or C-level?

This is how recruiters and companies classify engineers in Silicon Valley (and beyond I believe). I'm not a fan of that classification personally, but it makes it easy to trim a pile of 5000 Resumes. What happens is that Google, FB, etc. will most likely attract 'A' engineers, while other companies will have to deal with B's and C's (sometimes A's as well).

So to answer your question, an A engineer is someone who can potentially crack a Google interview, or someone who worked for one of the big-5 in the past (FB, amazon, google, apple, microsoft). I let you guess for B and C... same concept.

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

#55

Post by jamesmp98 »

mindcrime wrote: post #52
jamesmp98 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you on the east coast?

The RTP (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC) area.

Yeah NC and GA seem to have much more / better jobs than SC (where I am stuck). I might have a developer job if I was still in the Atlanta metro area.

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

#56

Post by autotune »

jamesmp98 wrote: post #15
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?

Start contributing to open source projects on github that solve business problems. Usually for popular projects there are a good number of issues that are available to solve at varying levels of difficulty.

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

#57

Post by jjoe »

citizens wrote: post #8
jjoe wrote: post #7

The difference between a demo or prototype and an actual SaaS with paying users is significant. The former can land you a technical job if it's well done. The latter will getyou a C-level job for an upstart if it's well executed (read: shows important growth). But you haven't explained what kind of job you're applying for.

> The latter will getyou a C-level job for an upstart if it's well executed Could you expand on this? Are you referring to an acquisition?

Not an acquisition. If you can show you've built a XaaS from scratch, were able to acquire a good number of paying users, and were able to keep them happy, then chances are you're well worth the hire. You're high-end startup material. Do this a few times in a row and you can be certain investors will like you. Taking it up a notch each time.

People who can do this serially are never out of work.

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

#58

Post by curiousDog »

bsvalley wrote: post #21

From my own experience dealing with all kinds of companies. If you aim for C-level companies (IBM, Banks, Oracle, Walmart, etc.) then you don't need to spend time building side projects. They simply don't care. For B-level companies like Uber, Airbnb, Dropbox and everything in between low and high skilled engineers, it's crucial to have a product of your own out there. They hire mostly young engineers with no profess…

Umm, Airbnb interviews are much harder than FB and Google.

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

#59

Post by akhilcacharya »

nrjdhsbsid wrote: post #16
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 n…

> stupid toy problems in minutes.

What sort of toy problems are you talking about?

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

#60

Post by curiousDog »

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…

Solve the book Elements of Programming Interviews and you'll get a job at any of the Big 5.
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