[zemvpferreira]

Not a hiring manager but I've interviewed/hired in the high tens to low hundreds of people on my own dime in the past decade. Many from cold applications. I intensely dislike this criteria and want to share my own:

People who perform really well at their job is who I want to hire. Solid skills, team player, proactive attitude. I have no proxy for that except digging down on recent projects and personality while talking to you. Do whatever you want in your downtime. Show those 3 things and you're golden even if your skills are a little misaligned or if you've been out of the game for a bit.

(Might apply better to smaller businesses where you're interviewing with the owner)

[tinco]

You've definitely hired more than me, and if you're interviewing as the owner of a company that makes you a hiring manager right? If not then I've got my definition wrong and I'm not one either.

Are you saying that if you've got one candidate who has not worked on personal projects and/or leetcode, and one who doesn't, and their backgrounds are similar otherwise, and you've only got time to call one, you'd flip a coin?

I'm not making any hiring decisions based on leetcode, I just think it's a signal that a candidate is serious about their work ethic. But from what I've seen the candidates who had impressive personal projects have more often been significantly more productive coders. Again, that doesn't mean it's a hiring decision, but it means putting the resume on top of the stack for me at least.

edit: also disclaimer I've literally never seen a resume that said the candidate had done leetcode. Maybe that's a thing that happens more at larger companies with more ambitious candidates?

[zemvpferreira]

I mean fair enough, all in the spirit of trying to help OP. I think your answer was definitely helpful and representative of many hiring processes.

Personally I can't remember a situation where side projects made a difference, except maybe for hiring interns. I care much more about learning how people behave in real work situations, to the point where side project isn't even a signal.

I don't obsess over perfect candidates either. I'll advertise/interview until I find someone competent and capable of growth. However those are rare enough (and the field in demand enough) that I haven't had to choose between candidates often. But if I do, I'll do my best to decide based on real work experience. Reality is messy, certainly I've bowdlerized my experience but I think that's directionally correct.

To summarize, I hope OP just goes at it and starts interviewing as much as possible after spending a few hours talking himself up. I'm sure he's good enough as it is to be hired. Same conclusion as you really :)