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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

#71

Post by s3nnyy »

pacaro wrote: post #60
s3nnyy wrote: post #56

My own experience as tech recruiter, who looks at dozens of resumes a day, is that I only take some minutes to review your publicly available code. If I see commented code, rough violation of coding standards etc., that is bad and I will ask about it. So if you share side projects, remember that it gives the interviewer "attack surface" to disqualify you. However, good interviewers won't look 20% for your weaknesses…

Be careful, the coding in free time is an interesting signal to be sure, but considering one engineer to be better than another purely on the basis that they code in their free time is anti-diverse

But if I only care about coding capability I might want to hire the one who programs 16 hours a day and not just 8 hours a day. We live in a free market and I can optimize for such parameters, if I want.

Obviously, if I really take this as a main parameter, I will be hiring probably 22 yr old kids with no relationships. I only see an indirect relationship to diversity. Still, good hint to keep that in mind.

Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job

#72

Post by Bahamut »

user5994461 wrote: post #49
kraftman wrote: post #7

It 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.

Noone looks at the github. Source: https://thehftguy.com/2016/10/24/heres-how-to-make-a-good-gi...

That’s just flat out wrong. My GitHub profile has gotten strong interest from companies, including the famous big tech companies (I work at one currently), due to having a ton of open source contributions to major projects & smart analysis/questions through participation in open source communities. I also have gotten asked a fair number of questions directly related to my profile during interviews as well, often demonstrating that the interviewers took a non-cursory look at it.

The thing that companies don’t generally care for are non-impressive GitHub profiles. I don’t care about seeing code that doesn’t stick out as not from a craftsman, or just docs contributions when I review resumes/GitHub profiles. I want to see code demonstrating standard industry practices, and smart architecture decisions. I want to see an understanding of testing.

It’s up to the candidate to make good use of GitHub to impress. Most fail at it, but that does not mean that no one looks at GitHub profiles - on the contrary, they usually are quite revealing.

Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job

#73

Post by jmcgough »

dheera wrote: post #68
bloudermilk wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like you, I find it extremely relaxing to build pointless things. Do you have the same trouble I do in explaining that this isn't "work" to people close to you?

I didn't have that problem much in Boston, but I do have that problem after moving to the Bay Area. People just don't seem to get it. No, I'm not planning on raising money for this side project. No, I don't have a million users. No, I don't know why people would want this. No, it's not for a startup. No, it's not related to my actual startup at all. It's called having fun, damn it.

This is why I participate in the Stupid Shit That No One Needs And Terrible Ideas Hackathon every year. It's super fun to build goofy things that you can laugh about with friends.

Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job

#74

Post by bananaboy »

dvt wrote: post #63

Man this article is so flawed, it's not even funny. I was going to comment earlier today but I was certain it would get buried. I'm a bit disappointed that it's still on the main page. Here's my take.. > Make sure your side project isn’t a waste of your time A side project is never a waste of your time. It's a way to build something new, to exercise your creativity and passion, and to (when it's all said and done) sh…

Yes! And this:

> I'd wager that 90%+ of "coders" have never built something from zero to hero

I think that's probably very true! Shipping something is such a useful exercise. You learn so much by going through the full process, rather than just starting and then later abandoning something.

Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job

#76

Post by Pokepokalypse »

ashark wrote: post #35
dundercoder wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had never even heard of HackerRank before applying at a few places. I was supposed to write a binary search tree algorithm without using anything except the language docs. I rarely write anything new without a quick search, it wastes valuable time reinventing the wheel.

I find I often forget basic language syntax when I don't have adjoining lines to crib from, say, when white boarding. And that's with languages I'm actively working in—I'm hopeless in anything I haven't used in a couple months, even if I wrote in it daily for the five years before that. I'll flat out forget which language features it supports, or how to address them.

Same. 25 years experience. (especially now that I have about a dozen obsolete languages under my belt). This is fine in daily practice, and does not interfere with productivity. But getting through that hiring filter; devastating.

Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job

#77

Post by Pokepokalypse »

lkrubner wrote: post #44
kraftman wrote: post #7

It 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.

This surprises me all the time. Most people hire me without ever doing any research on me. I get to a job interview and they ask me if I know what "object oriented programming" means. Had they searched for my name, they would have found my name on the Wikipedia page for object oriented programming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming And I've never gone to a job interview where people knew I had…

I don't even cop to having a github, and I don't have anything useful on my "public" github.

But where I have public-facing projects' URLs on my resume - interviewers seem to be completely clueless about them. They'll ask me questions about a topic, and I'll point them to that URL on my resume as an example of how I know that area, or did that task.

It seems like they only read the "skills overview" blurb at the top, that we put there to get through the search filters - and they don't read the work history.

Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job

#78

Post by [deleted] »

pcl wrote: post #19
wwalser wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this article seems to imply the only value of side projects is for future employers It doesn't imply that. When writing about anything, explaining all the things that you're _not_ talking about is a great way to never get to the point. Determining that the post is about side projects aimed at landing a job is a task left to the reader. If the title didn't get you there, the second sentence is here to help: "For the…

Well, the title reads "3 Principles to Make Your Side Project Stand Out to Help You Land a Job in Tech".

[deleted]

Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job

#79

Post by expertentipp »

jmcgough wrote: post #73
dheera wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't have that problem much in Boston, but I do have that problem after moving to the Bay Area. People just don't seem to get it. No, I'm not planning on raising money for this side project. No, I don't have a million users. No, I don't know why people would want this. No, it's not for a startup. No, it's not related to my actual startup at all. It's called having fun, damn it.

This is why I participate in the Stupid Shit That No One Needs And Terrible Ideas Hackathon every year. It's super fun to build goofy things that you can laugh about with friends.

Landlord, utility companies, car mechanic, partner, and kids roll on the ground from the laughter as well.

Re: How to not waste time on a side project when trying to get a job

#80

Post by k__ »

newfoundglory wrote: post #36
k__ wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the impression it was the other way around. A crowd of companies all searching for tech people.

Yes, but they're all searching for "awesome" tech people, not just anyone.

most of them don't have a choice, lol
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