Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?

1. https://github.com/robertsdotpm/pyp2p - This was an attempt to make a peer-to-peer networking library in Python. Don't use it or anything as it's horrible code. But it was enough to get me a job at a startup called Storj. I messaged the team and was able to talk about specific challenges of peer-to-peer networking which were relevant to the product they were building.

2. https://github.com/robertsdotpm/coinbend - This was my attempt to build a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange whereby all trades were done without the need for an intermediary to hold deposits using smart contracts. This was actually one of the first 'decentralized exchanges' made at a time when the only coins that existed were forks of Bitcoin. It was impressive enough to land me a job at Exodus which is still the most incredible company in the blockchain space (IMO obviously.)

((If anyone's wondering: I lost both jobs due to severe untreated depression. Lmaoo... But I'm on meds now.)) But yeah, companies absolutely will hire people without degrees and based on the quality of the projects you've worked on. I know that many people say that working on side projects doesn't matter. But you need to actually talk about your projects and reach out to people for it to matter. If you just apply through HR they'll just go through a generic list of things to check off while they look at your resume.

By the way OP: I've always found that taking the effect to actually understand the problems that companies are trying to solve and outlining how existing work that you've done qualifies you to provide a solution is the fastest way to get a job. But again -- you need to reach the people who know what you mean. Shout out to Storj and Exodus -- both great companies that I would recommend.

My boss owned a pro volleyball team, one of my responsibilities was managing an online community for fans.

Every time we needed changes to the community forums, we had to hire external devs who were very slow and very expensive. So I explained my boss that I could code and asked if I could just do the changes myself, he agreed. I gradually started coding more and more regularly, this helped me keeping my skills current even if I wasn't formally employed as a dev.

Fast forward to about a year later - my boss bought a hotel, and shortly after the hotel director quit. He asked me if I could temporarily take the role as a director, I agreed. Business was slow (low season), and I was more confident about my programming skills thanks to the experience with the volleyball forums, so I kept myself busy working on a simple calendar web app for the hotel.

The next year, I left my job and I became the tech co-founder of a travel bookings startup, where my main task was building a calendar synchronisation system. I couldn't have done it without that previous experience building the hotel calendar app. My co-founder later told me that he chose me over someone else because of that specific experience I had.

I was lucky enough to have a good friend and neighbour down the road who ran ExNet [1], who provided me with space to host my first server, and oh boy looking back, I am surprised I didn't blow everything up! [2] - Windows 98 connected directly into the internet, with a fairly terrible firewall and some random remote control software I found!.

Eventually, though another MUD, we were donated a more up-to-date box, which ran Linux, and we hosted that MUD and the Faereal MUD for a while, eventually adding in my own DNS server, website hosting (PHP), and that is how I ended up hosting friends websites.

That turned into a hobby where I started to write my own PHP, started helping firstly helping out on a game called "PhaseOne" which was essentially a copy of a game we were all playing at the time called "Planetarion" [3] -- (OMG As I looked for this, its still running!). Part of this code I created a "Team based chat area", which eventually became the primary base for something that has taken over nearly 20 years of my life.

The code became the custom-written forum code behind DDR:UK, a Dance Dance Revolution fan website for the UK, which through the founders we created the "official" Sim Packs for DDR simulators such as DWI [4] and Stepmania [5]. This eventually moved into us working at events such as the London MCM ComicCon [6], where we bought in actual DDR arcade machines, including a Stepmania run DDR Machine that used to sit in the Namco Station in Central London on the South Bank. (I would love to say it was a world first, but there was one group in the US that had a temporary setup... I would like to hope we are the world first permanent money-making one :D)

That got me into running a Japanese Culture Festival called Tokonatsu [7] which got me into learning AWS. This festival has now been running for 20 years!

So all in all, how did this help:

* Interviews, it's a great story to tell, and I always get a lot of fun looks!

* Experience, from hardware, to networking, to early days of internet, software, hosting etc etc. I went thought a LOT of sleepless nights when I was younger sorting this out, gave me a whole bunch of experience that I would never would have had.

* Networking, still talk to a lot of people today, and these people are key for where I am.

Honestly, the owner of ExNet, I couldn't have done any of this, if he hadn't of started me on the right path.

EDIT: Totally forgot to explain where I am now! So with all this, through support tech, manager of of datacentres, through lead engineers, etc etc... I am now the AWS Practice Lead for my company, a Principle Consultant, and I am writing this in the airport on the way back from AWS Re:Invent 2023 :D

So yeah, that is my story! Hope someone does eventually read it :D

[1] https://www.exnet.com/

[2] https://static.colinbarker.me.uk/img/blog/2020/07/faereal-se...

[3] http://www.planetarion.com/

[4] http://dwi.ddruk.com

[5] https://www.stepmania.com/

[6] https://www.mcmcomiccon.com/global/en-us.html

[7] https://www.tokonatsu.org.uk