[innomansland]

This is gold! Can't thank you enough for your input.

Just as a side note, while my professional life is very "narrow", I have been doing stuff on the side! I own 3 dropshipping sites (WooCommerce & Shopify) and 2 pseudo-SaaS sites (one MEAN stack and the other Meteor.JS). I started these projects last year just so that I can get my hands dirty in the latest web technologies (last time i made a full fledged website, I was using LAMP and/or Perl!) and also, hopefully, generate some side income for myself (my FI goals is a story for another day).

Anyway, I did include these projects in some of my applications where appropriate but it seems to be ignored. There was another Ask HN thread on this particular topic [1] and it seems that side projects are generally ignored?

You did raise an interesting point on meetups, coding dojos, conferences, etc which will provide an avenue for me to meet people to hopefully build a network outside of my current profession. There is one thing I am absolutely confident with is talking to people! I love being in customer support. :)

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13463105

[whack]

Off topic but I had the same experience as well. I had a side project which was twice as challenging and impressive as anything I had developed in my 9-5 job. But for some reason, interviewers only ever wanted to know what I did 9-5. I never did figure out why. My best guess is that they figure it can't really be all that great if no one paid you for it.

[mikekchar]

I've heard other people say the same thing... It's interesting. My projects have definitely got me interviews, but I admit that it has generally happened when I met someone at another event. You get to talking about what you've been working on and I just pull out my laptop and show them. So maybe that's the difference. I know that when I've been hiring, I always look at people's side projects. If they have a nice project I might not even bother looking at their CV. I might be strange, though...

[probinso]

The term side project is often associated with Hobby. Those who do not appreciate side project also do not appreciate the amount of work that can go into 1. If you put real hours into it, your best interest is sharing your side project as if it was a part-time contract. You never have to divulge how much you made on a side project.

This is a lot harder if your side project is a solo work.

Just treating your project like this, can allow for you to control the conversation better during an interview.

[jagtesh]

Your prospective colleagues and bosses would have been impressed by it. However, to impress the recruiter is a different ball game. Especially the inexperienced recruiters, who don't always understand the challenges of one technology vs another. Another possibility could be you were person #25 or even #7 to apply to the job and they already found a pretty good fit in the first 6.

[yoshyosh]

At the end of the day, the person is hiring to fill a specific job. A side project can represent every aspect of a business/product, it's the interviewee's job to spin it in a way that makes it relevant to what the interviewer is trying to hire for.

I think a big mistake a lot of people make with side project marketing is throwing the entire kitchen sink at the interviewer.

[sharemywin]

I was told I was to business focused and not technical because of my side project. Even though I learned a completely new language on mobile.

[tmaly]

As others have said, a side project has been a huge help in getting me into avenues and opening up doors. Start with something small but relevant to the skill set you want to have.

Also, blogging about the industry you want to get into also helps establish yourself as a thought leader. You can re purpose the content for linkedin, medium etc.