Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?

#331

Post by lloeki » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 8:08 AM UTC

Some years ago I was on a shitty job - not technically, but the company turned out to be inhumane - at a Ruby shop, and on the side I was toying with mini_racer and I just upgraded to some macOS beta where it failed to build. A shitty +1-1 hack† for a compiler flag later and it was back flying.

A month later I received a cold email from a CTO to chat a bit about that PR, turns out they were using mini_racer heavily and forked it for their own purpose, and also created PyMiniRacer for the Python side of things. Next thing I know I got hired. Two years later the company got acquired.

Of course conditionally adding a compiler flag wasn't what got me hired per se, it only got my profile noticed. Probably side projects such as porting go by example to Ruby by implementing a ~1:1 CSP channel API[1], an Electron desktop client for Mattermost basically on a dare[2], an anti-ORM "why do we keep referencing ever-changing models in migrations" Ruby SQL generator[3], ex mode for the Atom editor so that I could have that frackin' `:w`[4], leveraging Blocks to bolt on object-oriented-ness onto C because "closures are a poor man's object"[5], or reverse-engineering the Xbox One USB gamepad and writing a kext to turn it into a HID device on macOS from scratch on a lonely 7+h train ride with passengers judgementally staring at me sideways[6] probably contributed to it a bit.

My takeaway: luck is when preparation meets opportunity; but don't do side projects to get hired, because if you don't get hired then that time is lost. Rather, of all things, scratch your itch, be curious, have fun, embrace whatever quirkiness you fancy, be proud and put it out; no one can take that away from you.

[0]: https://github.com/rubyjs/mini_racer/commit/2086db1bbf2b5de4...

[1]: https://github.com/lloeki/normandy

[2]: https://github.com/lloeki/matterfront

[3]: https://github.com/lloeki/rebel

[4]: https://github.com/lloeki/ex-mode

[5]: https://github.com/lloeki/cblocks-clobj/blob/master/main.c#L...

[6]: https://github.com/lloeki/xbox_one_controller

Re: Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?

#332

Post by tolai » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 8:09 AM UTC

ggambetta wrote: post #311

ftorres16 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

¡Somos al menos tres!

¡Somos como cuatro! Dozens of us! Dozens!

Gabriel? Trabajamos en un proyecto común en 2007 para un proyecto de robótica para una empresa americana... otro uruguayo acá pero yo me tuve que subir al avión :(

Re: Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?

#333

Post by tomthe » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 8:11 AM UTC

oaiey wrote: post #300

pokepim wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it common for Germans to dream about getting out of Germany and moving to US? Congratulations to you that you managed to do that, I am wondering how hard for German is to migrate to US to puruse better life here.

It is not common. Most Germans consider would never use the phrase "pursue a better life" when talking about the US. Quality of Life is in most European countries better including Germany. There are however some who want "freedom". Not that they lack freedom in Germany but the spiritual cowboy style, rocky mountain lifestyle freedom. Another reason for migration are obviously job offers in some industries.

This is my view as well. However, if you are a young and healthy software developer, you can earn much more money in the US.

Re: Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?

#334

Post by Yoric » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 8:16 AM UTC

It worked out pretty well for me.

# Starting OCaml Batteries Included.

(that and my academic research) got me my job at MLstate, no interview.

# Contributing to Firefox

Got me in touch with Firefox devs. One of them suggested I applied to Mozilla. I worked 9 years at Mozilla before moving on.

# Contributing to Rust

Contributing to the Rust compiler and stdlib got me in the pipeline for a few other jobs. I declined most of them (not a bit fan of cryptocurrencies and how they're used).

Also, generally, I find that coding in Rust is good for clarity of mind and purpose. In other words, having solved a problem in Rust helps me write code that both solves the same problem in other languages and has clear, explainable, invariants. YMMV

# OpenBerg

A long time ago, I started one of the first e-book software readers, called OpenBerg. Jim Gettys [1] got in touch with me by IRC to offer me a job working on it full-time for one year. I already had a job, so I declined.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Gettys

Re: Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?

#335

Post by device_id » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 8:17 AM UTC

Created a financial markets tech project, put it on sourceforge. Didn’t even get to the second commit. A hiring manager from a nyse group co emails me: “can you implement this for us to completion we will give you money”. I go “sorry I am busy building a startup [in some unrelated area]”. Startup grew and then failed, and I became poor, temporarily.

Re: Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?

#336

Post by Kelkonosemmel » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 8:21 AM UTC

pokepim wrote: post #239

binwiederhier wrote: post #121

I wrote a Dropbox-like file sync and share application called Syncany [1] as a side project back in 2014/2015. While it never made it out of alpha, it had gotten some traction, and looking back, I am still proud of the architecture and design (not so much of the code, hehe). One day, a developer from this random company in Connecticut (I am German and lived in Germany at the time) reached out to me in my project's IR…

Is it common for Germans to dream about getting out of Germany and moving to US? Congratulations to you that you managed to do that, I am wondering how hard for German is to migrate to US to puruse better life here.

I rarely think about it but not for more freedom.

For making more money for 5 years or so to retire earlier.

But than I think about the bigger social gap and dislike the idea again.

Re: Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?

#337

Post by hackernewds » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 8:21 AM UTC

simonsarris wrote: post #203

When I was fresh out of college I semi-obsessively started answering StackOverflow questions about HTML Canvas, which was still new enough to not have a lot of coverage. At one point I answered over 10% of all canvas questions ever asked. I also blogged a few tutorials. This made Pearson email me for a book offer (HTML5 Unleashed, 2013, almost no one read it as I had no fame, but last amazon review: "Still relevant i…

how has your life worked out not having taken that offer?

Re: Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?

#338

Post by kebsup » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 8:22 AM UTC

My favorite job interview was when we just talked about my project: https://gifmemes.io most of the time. Got the job.

Re: Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?

#339

Post by hackernewds » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 8:22 AM UTC

travisgriggs wrote: post #241

Brajeshwar wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once upon a time, answering people's questions on forums was an excellent long-tail payback career strategy. I used to answer many questions, write explainer blog posts based on repeated questions, etc. In the early-to-mid-2000s, Macromedia paid for my trip to San Francisco, a hotel stay at the W, and a chance to meet the programmers and authors I looked up to -- all because I answered and helped people with their qu…

Yes, every forum has its early years phase where this occurs. It’s about like trying to catch a wave, you look for a building wave, invest some participation, and you have a fine ride. Eventually, the “organizers” show up and add too much order to a system that wants to be a balance between loose structure and otherwise chaotic ad hoc interplay. And if the organizers aren’t the ones that over constrain the system, th…

sounds like the downfall of Quora. Interviewed there and it seemed like they're still on board thinking a flood of ads is the perfect UX

Re: Ask HN: What side projects landed you a job?

#340

Post by Yoric » Mon, Dec 04, 2023, 8:22 AM UTC

Anecdote from a friend.

As a student, he reverse-engineered his country's tax application (not sure how he did that), turned it into a programming language, published the result as open-source along with formal semantics and precise documentation. Apparently, the official implementation was closed source, the state didn't have access to the source and the results were undocumented and nobody understood how it worked.

A few years later, the state adopted his application as the backend for the tax computation infrastructure and, if my memory serves, offered him a job. He declined.