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As a person trying to break into the software world to get a software developer job, I feel like side projects are the only thing I can show.
How else are you suppose to learn different parts of the stack when you're (usually) only hired to work in one part? How are you suppose to learn DevOps/CloudOps unless you're on an Ops team?
Many (most?) companies don't delegate full stack responsibilities to individual teams.
Sure, if you do a good job with your employer, you will build reputation. But so do side projects, speaking at developer conferences and going to meetups. Build your network!
In my opinion, it depends on what your career goal is and what you want out of life.
If you are in a position where you use a technology you don't like or work on projects you don't enjoy, a side project on the weekends can be a way of addressing the gap. Not everyone has the chance of joining a great company.
It also depends on what country or continent you reside in. It appears that in American culture, side projects are actively encouraged; A couple of silicon valley companies have come out of side projects.
A different argument can also be made that doing multiple side projects would not make you a better programmer. Our culture tends to focus on quantitative factors for improving skills rather than qualitative factors. What if rather than doing side projects, one changes ones attitude in their current job? An excellent article on qualitative factors on excellence can be found in https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/what-is-excellence
My experience has been different than the author. I suffer from pretty bad anxiety, which doesn't exactly come in handy during interviews and coding challenges. Side projects have been a good way to talk deeply and technically during interviews about concrete problems that I've worked on because I can't show a potential employer code I wrote for someone else's company.
That said, I think there's limited value in showing an employer the product of some tutorial, but side projects that came from my brain alone never hurt in an interview context, and almost always helped.
TLDR; Recruiters don't care about side projects. Side projects are often shallow and its better to use new tech in real job instead of side projects. I feel most of us would disagree with that. All new jobs in my career were result of learning something new on side projects. Recruiters show that as passion for learning. Many jobs don't allow for much exploration and you don't have leverage to call shots. It's usually…
This _opinion_ can be countered with a single ancedote- I got a job because of my side projects and would be unemployed if I didn't work on side projects. Now, who's opinion is correct?
This _opinion_ can be countered with a single ancedote- I got a job because of my side projects and would be unemployed if I didn't work on side projects. Now, who's opinion is correct?