How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job
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Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job
#2Forget about side projects if you are looking for a job. Focus on leetcode.
It is like buying stamina when the next boss can be easily defeated using strength.
Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job
#3I don't understand the logic of this article. My side projects tend to be efforts in self employment, not 'click bait' for an employer. While not everyone has the same approach, this article seems to imply the only value of side projects is for future employers. I'd hate for people to get the wrong impression about the value of these projects.
Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job
#4Forget about side projects if you are looking for a job. Focus on leetcode. It is like buying stamina when the next boss can be easily defeated using strength.
Can you elaborate on why that might be the case?
Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job
#5I don't understand the logic of this article. My side projects tend to be efforts in self employment, not 'click bait' for an employer. While not everyone has the same approach, this article seems to imply the only value of side projects is for future employers. I'd hate for people to get the wrong impression about the value of these projects.
Thought the the same. For me it's not doing sideprojects to get a job but having a job to finance my sideprojects.
Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job
#6I totally stop my side projects when job hunting. There really doesn't seem to be any practical time. Often I find that I need that time to study new concepts and play catch up improving my skills so I can be even more presentable to a company. I mean the tech industry, especially software engineering is rife with testing merge sorts, parsing csv files, and non-real world coding challenges when interviewing. Who has the time? Let alone the shear amount of frameworks and systems you need to understand depending on the companies specific pipeline. Forget your side project and reduce the strain.
Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job
#7It would be interesting to know what proportion of employers even look at your Github, let alone dig into detail enough to investigate your side projects to this level.
I work on quite a few side projects in my own time because I enjoy it, but I've never been asked about my projects on Github or my blog.
Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job
#8Forget about side projects if you are looking for a job. Focus on leetcode. It is like buying stamina when the next boss can be easily defeated using strength.
Can you elaborate on why that might be the case?
Regardless of how impressive your side project is, unless it is a very special exception (e.g. you’re head maintainer of a linux distribution or open source tool the company hiring you is extensively using and needs your expertise on), it’s only getting you into the door to talk to people, and it’s not a route around the interview process.
So, ultimately that process is going to be whiteboard coding, because it (let’s be honest) basically always is. That whiteboard coding tends to draw its questions, most often, from question pools like those on Leetcode.
This means if you’re resume’s strong enough for someone to talk to you, you probably should be optimizing to pass the whiteboard section.
Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job
#9I don't understand the logic of this article. My side projects tend to be efforts in self employment, not 'click bait' for an employer. While not everyone has the same approach, this article seems to imply the only value of side projects is for future employers. I'd hate for people to get the wrong impression about the value of these projects.
Thought the the same. For me it's not doing sideprojects to get a job but having a job to finance my sideprojects.
In these cases, isn't it the dayjob that's the "side" project?
Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job
#10I don't understand the logic of this article. My side projects tend to be efforts in self employment, not 'click bait' for an employer. While not everyone has the same approach, this article seems to imply the only value of side projects is for future employers. I'd hate for people to get the wrong impression about the value of these projects.
Thought the the same. For me it's not doing sideprojects to get a job but having a job to finance my sideprojects.
My guess is you're both gainfully employed :)
Side projects are more and more being touted as a way to "stand out" from the enormous crowd of people trying to get tech jobs. A company choosing among 100 candidates, all things being equal, may bias towards the few with active interesting side projects. If you accept that, then starting some kind of side project would be worth it.